A Certain Frozen Flower
by Hikari Sword
Summary: *OC CENTRIC STORY* Kuroko and Mikoto investigates an incident which involves not only a Tokiwadai student, but "that man" as well. What happened between those two? Also, what could Mikoto want with this girl? And what secret could she have? Ice and Lightning clash at Tokiwadai!
1. The Ice Flower

Disclaimer: I do not own "A Certain Magical Index" or it's characters.

Author: In the planning stages of a fic that I plan to do (its still in the planning stages), I realized that I'm lacking in Science side characters. Or at least ones that are friendly to Touma and will help him out in Magic side stuff (especially if I limit the characters/developments to the end of season 2 of the anime, haven't yet decided whether to do that or not).

One thought came in the form of Suzushina Yuriko, but I have difficulty with Accelerator as is.

In the end I decided to create an OC, but I didn't want to dedicate a bunch of the planned story to explain how they met and such. So I ended up making this story to show off that OC.

XXX

* * *

**CH1. The Ice Flower**

Kuroko looks through a school's computer, she's looking at the registry as a member of Judgment.

"Find anything?" Mikoto asks Kuroko.

"It's as we expected," Kuroko starts. "No one here matches the physical descriptions in the school's database. 'A young girl in a Tokiwadai uniform with long blue hair'."

"Obviously," Mikoto sighs. "Which means that she just dyed her hair or wearing a wig. She shouldn't be that hard to find, long blue hair definitely sticks out."

"In the meantime," Kuroko stars thinking. "We should investigate all of the registered ice powered Espers. Still..."

"What?"

"Take a look," Kuroko hands Mikoto some photographs of an area covered in sheets and spikes of ice. "A normal level 3 would have trouble doing all that. The damage done at the scene of the conflict suggests a high level 3 or even a level 4. We only have a very rare few that match that criteria. Most of the school's ice users are on the low level 3 scale."

"Let's start from the top, the one that's responsible most likely belongs there."

XXX

* * *

At another part of the school sometime later, Maaya Awatsuki and Kinuho Wannai were walking through the fields.

"Really? That's what she said?" Kihuno giggles.

"Of course!" Maaya laughes.

The two girls converse across the grounds until Kihuno notices something strange.

"Huh? What is it Wannai?"

"That person there," Kihuno points to a flowerbed with someone leaning over the rocks "With the blue hair."

"Blue hair?" Maaya looks over.

Upon closer inspection, the blue haired Tokiwadai student seemed to be concentrating hard on something. There was also a bunch of melting ice in a pile right next to her. She concentrated hard, a small mist was floating around her hands and forming a small straight stick of some sort from the rock bricks. The girl then took a look at the flowers right in front of her, especially the Lily.

Her blue eyes focused hard, the mist between her hands start to form a shape similar to the flower. A spike suddenly juts out of one of the petals. The girl sighs, the mist coming out of her hands disappear and she picks the flower out off of the rock.

"That's another failure," she mumbles as she inspects her creation. "I just can't seem to get the finer details right. ... Huh? What do you mean someone's watching?"

The blue haired girl turns around and sees Maaya and Kihuno right behind her. They were admiring the misshapen flower of ice in her hand.

"T-that's amazing!" Kihuno stares. "Can we take a look at it?"

"I guess... Careful, it's cold," the girl hands over the flower to Kihuno and Maaya.

"It is cold," Kihuno hands the flower over to Maaya.

"It's ice," the girl remarks.

"This is nicely done," Maaya inspects the flower closer. "The ice is almost identical to the flower and it's crystal clear too!" The swim team girl hands the flower back.

"The key word is almost," the blue haired girl receives the flower and places it on top of the pile of melting ice. "I just can't seem to focus hard enough. My calculations are screwing up. Still, thanks for admiring it... um..."

"Ah!" a startled Kihuno nearly jumps. "I forgot! My name is Kihuno Wannai."

"And I'm Maaya Awatsuki, we're both from the swim club and we had just finished."

"I'm Lilian, Lilian Isolde Sterling. It's very nice to meet you."

"Lilian Isolde Sterling?" Kihuno starts thinking for a moment. "That's a foreign name, isn't it?"

"Yes," Lilian answers brightly. "Yes it is."

"Oh," Maaya begins. "Do you want us to call you 'Lilian' or 'Sterling'?"

"I'm okay with either," Lilian smiles. "The differences in this whole name thing took me some time to get used to, but it doesn't bother me now."

"Phew," Kihuno sighed. "I'm relieved."

"Hehehe," Lilian giggles. "I've gotten in a lot of strange situations because of it though."

"So... Sterling?" Maaya interrupts. "What were you doing here?"

"I'm trying to make ice flowers," Lilian points to the melting pile of ice. "I just need to work on the flower part."

"Is it that hard to make a flower shape?" Kihuno ponders. "I think I might be able to shape some water like that if I try hard enough."

"Oh, your power uses water?" Lilian states. "Water and ice are in two different states. The differences in shaping them are like clay and rock. One is easily mouldable, the other is stuck in whatever form it's taken."

"Can't you just chip off the undesired parts of the flower?" Maaya suggests.

"I want it to look as whole and natural as possible, so I'm determined to do it in one shot."

"Is that for a class?" Kihuno asks.

"No," Lilian shakes her head. "It's for someone. As thanks."

"Oh, is it a boyfriend?" Maaya jokes.

"Wha-n-no!" Lilian jerks in shock. "This person saved me from a lot of trouble yesterday. I just wanted to give my thanks properly."

"A lot of trouble yesterday?"

"So you're going to give a flower of ice?" Kihuno asks. "Won't it melt?"

"As long as it's received, it's enough for me. I'm going to keep trying until sundown."

"Oh that's right," Maaya suddenly realized something. "Wannai, we need to get going."

"Oh? Ah!" Kihuno bowed to Lilian. "We have to be somewhere. Sorry to bother you!"

"Don't be, it was a nice talking to you two." Lilian waved as the two girls leave. "Now, back to making that flower. ... Of course I'll be able to do it! Just watch! ... Stop laughing!"

XXX

* * *

"Alright, thanks for your cooperation," Kuroko and Mikoto leave a club room and walk down the halls of their school. Kuroko crosses out a name on a piece of paper.

"How many people are left?" Mikoto asks.

"At least a couple dozen," Kuroko turns the page.

Mikoto sighs. "Most of the clubs are going to be closing around this time. It looks like we'll have to continue tomorrow then."

"Sissy, why are you so interested in this case?" Kuroko asks suspiciously.

"H-huh?" Mikoto stutters. "W-what are you talking about? I'm just helping out like usual. Is that so odd?"

"It's because of that ape isn't it?" Kuroko digs deeper. "In this case he was out helping another girl and you suddenly become interested."

"W-what? T-that's ridiculous! Why would I be interested in him? I'm just worried about the school's reputation!"

"So you say..." Kuroko sighs. "Why? Why in this cruel world is my Sissy enchanted by a moron?"

"Oi, Kuroko, what stupid things are you saying again?"

"But I will overcome this! I will bend reality to my whim and make Sissy mine!" Kuroko jumps towards Mikoto.

"Will you give it a damn rest already?!" Mikoto unleashes a strong roundhouse kick that sends Kuroko tumbling down the hallway. The teleporter's body slides to a stop just before a corner.

"Huh? Shirai? What are you doing down there?"

Mikoto looks down to see Kihuno and Maaya had just entered the hallway.

"My Sissy was just showing her love for me..."

"That's a really warped sense of love you've got there!" Mikoto yells down the halls as she comes closer. "So, what are you two doing?"

"We're just finishing some paperwork for the swim club," Maaya answered. "We'll be heading home soon. What about you two?"

"We were investigating something," Mikoto answers. "An incident that involved a Tokiwadai student. I don't think I should be saying any more than that."

"A student?" Kihuno repeats.

"Wait, Miss Misaka what happened yesterday?" Maaya cuts in.

"Huh?" Mikoto turns her serious mode on. "I didn't mention the incident happening yesterday."

"Uh... oh..." Maaya realizes what she said.

"Do you two know something?" Mikoto asks.

"Well," Kihuno knows that it's too late to hide anything. "We ran into this blue haired student on the way here, she mentioned something happening yesterday."

"Blue hair?" Mikoto's interest perked. "Who?"

"Um..." Kihuno tries to remember. "It was... Lilian something Sterling."

Mikoto looks down at Kuroko's body sprawled on the floor. "Oi, Kuroko. Get up. Jeez." Mikoto picks up Kuroko's papers and shifts through them. "This girl?" Mikoto pointed to a light brown haired foreigner with blue eyes and the name 'Lilian Isolde Sterling' underneath it.

"That's the name," Maaya answers. "Sterling dyed her hair?"

"I knew it," Mikoto responds politely. "Can you tell us where you last saw her?"

"She was next to the flower arrangements in that direction," Maaya points. "She's not in any sort of trouble, is she?"

"None so far," Mikoto answers. "We just have a few questions for her. Come on Kuroko! See you later, Wannai, Awatsuki." Mikoto waves.

"Bye, Miss Misaka."

Mikoto takes another look at the papers in her hand. "Now this is strange."

"What is?" Kuroko is back upon her feet and looking over Mikoto's shoulder.

"According to this, Sterling is on the lower end of the level 3's."

"She is a Tokiwadai student, she might have improved since the last checkups."

"So much that she'd be mistaken for a level 4? I don't buy it, the last checkups weren't that long ago. Even I didn't progress that fast, she might just be creative with her ability. In any case, we still have to talk to her."

XXX

* * *

Back with the flowers, Lilian is starting yet another flower of ice. She was already one third of the way finished when a part of it froze too fast and an ice spike jutted out.

"Argh!" the girl cries, frustrated. "That's the most progress I've been able to do today. ... You want me to quit for now? Sundown is still a long ways away. ... What do you mean this is the best I can do? I'm telling you I can do this! Argh! Just shut up already and let me concentrate! ... Behind me?"

Lilian turns around and sees Kuroko and Mikoto headed her way, she notices Kuroko wearing her Judgment armband.

"Judgment? Are they after me? But I thought I asked those guys to keep quiet about me. ... The ice we left behind? Well that was your fault for leaving behind so much! ... Oh, I didn't account for that gang to be interviewed."

Both Kuroko and Mikoto walk up to where Lilian is, Kuroko holds up her armband, "Lilian Isolde Sterling. I am Kuroko Shirai and right now I'm working as a member of Judgment. We have a few questions for you, we'd appreciate it if you'd cooperate with us."

"W-what seems to be the trouble?"

"It's in regards to an incident last night, we have reason to believe that you were a part of it. So please follow us to our Judgment office and we'll talk there."

XXX

* * *

Author: The trouble with OCs is, finding the right balance. Trying to make sure they don't have too much going for, or against them. Between the interactions/relationships and displays of power compared to canon characters.

I'll (very) likely end up making her power strong enough to give Mikoto some trouble just to make her sound impressive, as well as gain her (and some others) friendship unbelievably easily.


	2. Kuroko's Judgment

**CH2: Kuroko's Judgment**

Uiharu walks into the office with some hot tea and a glass of iced tea. "I've brought the drinks." She sets the tea down on the table where Mikoto and Lilian sat down, Kuroko was looking through some files on the computer and in some desks. Uiharu sits down next to Lilian and decides to enjoy a cup of tea.

"Thanks," Lilian thanks Uiharu as she reaches for her glass of iced tea with her free hand. Her other hand was playing with the last flower that she made before Mikoto and Kuroko took her away into the Judgment office.

"If you don't mind my asking," Mikoto cuts the silence in the room. "What is that for?" She points at the messed up ice flower in Lilian's hand.

"It's supposed to be a show of thanks," Lilian answers. "But I still have problems shaping it. I lost count of how many failed attempts I had."

"A show of thanks?" Uiharu asked.

"It's for a certain black, spiky haired boy isn't it?" Mikoto added, with a hint of a little grumble.

"H-huh? How did you know that?"

Mikoto face palms and sighs out loud. "It's just like him to get dragged into a girl's problems. Just how of them are there now?" Mikoto muttered the last line under her breath.

"Um... Miss Misaka?" Uiharu tries to call Mikoto back from whatever imagination she's having.

"I'm back," Kuroko walks in, drops a folder of papers on the table and sits down next to Mikoto. "I have several files here relating to Sterling. But the only thing worth noting in relation to the incident is her level and grades. According to this, you're a mid level 3 at best. And your grades just slightly above average in our school. Based on this, I find it hard to believe that you defeated the leaders of the Scorpion gang."

"Scorpion gang?"

"The group of people you defeated along with some high schoolers."

"They had a gang name?"

"The Scorpion gang were a bunch of rowdy troublemakers that's always getting into fights. Most of them are level 0 or level 1, may be a couple level 2's but their leaders were level 3 and level 4."

"Are you sure? They didn't seem all that impressive. I mean, it was just me and a few other people, right?"

"You're right," Kuroko continues. "You're registered as a level 3 while those that fought with you are level 0."

"Eh? They were level 0? But they're so strong!"

"In a different way, I would agree. But that's not the issue here, we can't exactly close this case until we know everything that happened yesterday. And because Tokiwadai's reputation is involved, this must be settled as soon as possible."

"This is why I asked them not to mention me..."

"They didn't," Kuroko reassures her. "It was the Scorpions that ratted you out." Kuroko takes a sip of her tea. "To be honest, I would've preferred it if our school was left out of incidents like this. But since we're involved we have no choice but to clear the records of any unsightly affairs."

"What's going to happen to me at the school?"

"I can't really answer that," Kuroko speaks flatly. "Normally, Anti-Skill would have been the ones to take you in and question you. But since this involves Tokiwadai, they were pressured by the school to let us handle it personally. You can rest assured that me and Sissy will do whatever we can to help you. Just tell us what happened yesterday and we'll take it from there."

Lilian took a deep breath and readied herself. "Alright, here goes..."

XXX

* * *

I guess I'll get right to it. I was hurrying back to the dorms because I had just realized how close to curfew it was. I was in an unfamiliar part of town from one of my shopping trips, I was lost, completely lost. Eventually I was running blind. That's when I made the worst turn I could possibly make. I had ran into... that group.

"Well, well, well... What do we have here? A pretty little girl that lost her way... Ahahaha..."

"And look, she's from Tokiwadai, that really famous super school..."

"Hey, if you're lost, we can help you..."

"N-no thank you, I'm okay, really!"

"Come on... don't be like that... we just want to help..."

"D-don't touch me!"

"AAHH!"

"What happened?"

"That chick froze my arm!"

"Oh no!"

"She did what? Get that little witch!"

"Hey come back here!"

XXX

* * *

"So basically it was by accident that you ran into them and you felt threatened," Kuroko sums up the story.

"Yeah," Lilian replies. "I was really panicking at the time, I couldn't figure out what to do."

"You did what you had to," Mikoto buts in. "That guy deserved it."

"Now continue," Kuroko urges. "You were being chased by the Scorpion gang."

"I wasn't running for long when I decided to skate away."

"Wait," Uiharu cuts into the story "Skate?"

"I make skates out of ice at the bottom on my shoes and I make an aura around my feet that allows them to create a layer of ice before the skates touch the ground. It's a lot faster than running."

XXX

* * *

I managed to make some distance between myself and that group, even though they're still chasing me. Just before I hit a corner I decided to look back, that's when I ran into the black haired boy and his friends. Well, it was more like I skated full speed into him and we got ourselves sprawled all over the road. His friends were a guy with blue hair, a blond guy with shades and an athletic looking girl.

"Kamijou! Are you alright?"

"Just my luck!"

"When it comes to girls, you always get the luck, Kami."

"Why? Why? Why is it always you?"

"Ah! I'm so sorry, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, I'm just... you're bleeding."

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. Ah! There's no time for this! Get out of here now! It's dangerous here!"

And I skated away.

XXX

* * *

"You skated away?" Mikoto interrupts. "So you just left them there?"

"I told them to get out of there," Lilian replies defensively. "Besides, those guys were chasing still chasing me. I didn't think that they'd end up fighting!"

Kuroko picks up some papers and shuffles through them. "'When that gang came up to us and wanted to cause some trouble, we didn't back down. Even though we were outnumbered almost 3 to 1, we stood up to them. I don't know what my friends were thinking, but I believe that we didn't want these guys to cause any more trouble than they already have. I can't really remember what happened during the fight, one of them must've set off all those ice powers though. I don't even know how we won.'"

Mikoto mentions for Kuroko to hand the document over to her. Kuroko takes another sip of tea.

"That was a statement from Touma Kamijou," Kuroko started. "The one that you ran into. As you can tell, he makes no mention of you. It's the same for all of them except the Scorpions. They did their best to exclude any mention of you at all, but the evidence was too heavy against them. Luckily for them, Tokiwadai intervened and allowed us to take over the investigation regarding the ice user."

"I see..." Lilian let out a sigh of relief. "They're alright, right?"

"We've decided to let them off the hook," Kuroko states. "But we still need to file an official report. For that, you need to continue with what happened."

"I don't think there's really anymore I can add," Lilian tells her. "After skating for a few seconds I realized that I wasn't being chased anymore. After that, I can't remember why I wanted to go back, I could just be making sure that they gave up chasing me."

"That's when you saw them fighting, right?" Mikoto asks.

"Yeah," Lilian answers meekly. "What was unbelievable is that they were actually holding their own for a moment. I would've stayed out of it if I could, but I had this guilty feeling that this was my fault, so I couldn't just leave them. Eventually I jumped in and helped them."

"Can you tell us about the fight?" Kuroko presses on.

"There was too much going on to really remember anything," Lilian responds. "I do know that we were mostly on the defensive because of their numbers and their leaders. A level 3 that can increase how hard his body is until it's as hard as steel, and a level 4 that can charge up the kinetic energy of anything he touches, causing them to explode."

"That sounds like a difficult fight for a group of level 0s," Uiharu mentions.

"I don't know how it happened," Lilian continues. "But we somehow managed to win without any serious injuries on our side."

"Is that really all that you can tell us?" Kuroko interrogated.

"I asked them afterwards not to mention anything about me, I didn't want to cause the school any trouble."

"And yet here we are," Kuroko states. "We're here because someone from the school got involved with a gang fight."

"I'm sorry," Lilian apologized.

"It wasn't your fault," Mikoto comforts her. "I get into fights with guys like that all the time."

"That's not something to be proud of Sissy," Kuroko sighs. "Still, she's right. It was them that started the whole incident, you were just trying to defend yourself. Now if you excuse us." Kuroko picks up the papers and all three of them leave the office and close the door.

"So what's the verdict, Kuroko?" Mikoto asks the Judgment girl.

"Her story pretty much matches up with what we know," Kuroko ponders hard. "The trails of melted ice through the sidewalks and streets, the location of the battle, even the Scorpion's testimonies. But..."

"Is something wrong?" Uiharu wonders.

"There's a couple things from the leader's statements that don't match," Kuroko pulls out some papers. "Here we are. According to Anti-Skill, he kept bragging about killing a Tokiwadai student. Obviously there's no evidence of anyone dying, but it was still enough to get the school seriously involved in the case."

"And asked us to handle it," Mikoto added.

"However," Kuroko conintues. "We now know that the Tokiwadai student, Miss Sterling, is alive and well. When the leader heard that there were no casualties, he went berserk, he was so certain that Sterling was dead. Thankfully Touma Kamijou was there to help keep him, and his ability, in line."

"Still, all that ice..." Uiharu takes a closer look at the photos of the scene. "Can she really be a low level 3?"

"She started as a mid level 2," Kuroko begins. "Once she became a level 3, she transferred to our school and was barely able to get accepted, she was the fourth last candidate of that year."

"That's real lucky for her," Mikoto remarks. "And she's just barely getting by with the grades she's getting."

"Now for the second thing," Kuroko continues. "According to the gang leader, Miss Sterling was on the offensive, taunting and crazy."

"That can't be right," Uiharu buts in. "She's so nice."

"A little too nice," Mikoto corrected. "Something probably happened during the fight and she snapped. That might be why she was mistaken for a level 4. She wasn't in control of herself."

"It's possible," Kuroko states. "But there's no way to prove that. Not that we need to anyway, I'm pretty certain that we've got enough to satisfy Anti-Skill, Judgment and Tokiwadai. Adding that little detail wouldn't do us, or her, any good."

"I guess you're right," Mikoto agrees. "We should really get back to her."

The three girls re-enter the office where Lilian was munching on the last ice cubes.

"You're free to go now," Kuroko tells her. "You've been a big help to us. We can take it from here."

Lilian signals them to wait a moment as she crunches all the ice cubes she had stuffed in her mouth. She cleared her throat a little before asking, "Really?"

"It's alright, you don't need to worry."

"Okay," Lilian gets her things. "Bye."

"Hold on a sec," Mikoto stops Lilian. "Tomorrow, can you meet me where we found you today, by the flowers?"

"Huh?" Lilian is understandably confused. "W-why? Am I in trouble again?"

"No, there's no trouble," Mikoto calms her down. "Just see me there tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright..."

"Don't forget now, see ya!"

"Bye..." Lilian makes her way out of the building silently. Although, she's worried about meeting with Mikoto tomorrow. However, with all this talk about what had happened, she wonders what that one boy might be doing now, and what he thinks of her for getting him and his friends in such a troublesome fight. Even if she does manage to create and give him the flower, will he accept it?

**XXX**

* * *

**Next Chapter: The Encounter, The Clash  
**

"It looked like she was in trouble," Touma concludes as he was helped up by Fukiyose.

"No, she trying to get away from trouble," Tsuchimikado mentions.

They all turn to see a big group of delinquents headed their way.

"Sorry, Fukiyose," Touma apologizes. "It looks like I'll be getting into a fight after all."

"Tch," Fukiyose scoffs. "But did you have to drag me into it too?"

"A knight must always protect a lady," Aogami starts a casual conversation. "Then they get a lady as a reward!"

"You and your crazy fantasies," Touma mocked.

"There's only one way to find out if that's really true," Tsuchimikado smiles.

**XXX**

* * *

Author: I suppose I'll put random tidbits regarding Lilian down here as the chapters get uploaded.

Ice and lightning are my two favorite powers, since Mikoto already has lightning, giving Lilian Ice powers was an immediate decision (and the series itself was lacking ice users). Ice is commonly portrayed as one of the weaker powers (hell, brute strength alone usually defeats Ice), well I can't exactly argue if that's how they want to show it, it just bugs me a bit.

As for what Mikoto wants with Lilian, I kinda already gave a big hint in my notes at the end of the first chapter.


	3. A Cold Encounter

**CH3: A Cold Encounter**

Touma Kamijou was walking the streets with his two friends, Motoharu Tsuchimikado and Pierce Aogami. They were all just coming from a very, very long detention session thanks to one of their 'playful' fights.

"Why were we held so darn late?" Touma sighed. "Just my luck."

"I'd be more than willing to stay if it was with Miss Komoe," Aogami waves his hands in the air.

"Cheer up Kami," Tsuchimikado says in his usual happy tone. "Just think of the nice food that'd be waiting for you when you get back."

"Ugh...!" Touma stopped and drooped. "I'll be lucky if there's even any food at all."

"You guys deserved that for being such troublemakers."

The three guys turned to see a familiar classmate headed their way with a small bag of groceries.

"Fukiyose?" Touma asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Grocery shopping," the girl held out her bag.

"This late?"

"Hey, I just realized I was lacking in supplies and finding just the right ingredients and the best fruit isn't easy you know!"

"Right right right..." Touma starts walking away with Tsuchimikado and Aogami.

"Don't just casually ignore me! Urgh! Are you three off to another fight?"

"Why would we want to do that?" Touma asks tiredly. "Besides, what kinds of trouble could we possibly get ourselves into?"

"You're always getting into trouble Kamijou! Like-"

*BAM*

"-that."

Touma's body feels total pain as he tries to get up. His friends watch the crash scene, there was a blue haired Tokiwadai student sprawled on top of him. She too begins to recover.

"Kamijou, are you alright?" Fukiyose suddenly sounded concerned.

"Just my luck!"

"When it comes to girls, you always get the luck Kami." Tsuchimikado jokes.

"Why? Why? Why is it always you?" Aogami curses the skies.

"Ah!" the girl gets up and bows quickly. "I'm so sorry, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, I'm just..." Touma stops his response to notice an injury on the girl. "You're bleeding."

"Huh?" the girl looks at her leg. "Oh, it's nothing. Ah!" The girl jumps a little bit. "There's no time for this!" Mist suddenly started to flow out from her feet and she stepped in place, making skating blades at the bottom of her shoes. There were some frozen pillars at the edge of her feet to keep her balance while she stayed still.

"Get out of here now!" the girl pulls her feet up, breaking the ice columns and began skating away. "It's dangerous here!" She called back before skating away at full speed and turning a corner.

"Who was that?" Fukiyose asked.

"I dunno, but she was a real cutie!" Aogami observed.

"It looked like she was in trouble," Touma concludes as he was helped up by Fukiyose.

"No, she trying to get away from trouble," Tsuchimikado mentions.

They all turn to see a big group of delinquents headed their way.

"Sorry, Fukiyose," Touma apologizes. "It looks like I'll be getting into a fight after all."

"Tch," Fukiyose scoffs. "But did you have to drag me into it too?"

"A knight must always protect a lady," Aogami starts a casual conversation. "Then they get a lady as a reward!"

"You and your crazy fantasies," Touma mocked.

"There's only one way to find out if that's really true," Tsuchimikado smiles.

"Hey you!" One of them yelled, a big muscular type. "Which way did that Tokiwadai chick go?"

"We don't know," Touma shrugged.

"You're lying!"

"Whether they're lying or not," said a smaller one, with a red headband around his head, and wears a leather jacket, quite possibly their boss or leader. "She's already long gone."

The big one backed off and stood next to the leader.

"What did you want with her?" Touma questions.

"We just wanted to get to know her better, that's all. But the witch just froze one of my boys and booked it. Since we can't get to her now, we've got all this pent up frustration that we're going to unleash on you."

"Is that right...?"

"Get them boys!"

XXX

* * *

"Stop?" Lilian stopped skating and looked behind her. "You're right. Do you think they gave up? ... Go back? Are you crazy? ... Well I have a bad feeling that your bad feeling is going to get us in trouble again!" Lilian reluctantly skates back.

XXX

* * *

The four classmates were actually doing a fairly decent job of holding their own despite being heavily outnumbered.

"Aha!" Aogami throws one of the gang members to the ground and charges the nearest one. "Hiiiyaaaaah!" Aogami rams his fist into the nearest guy's chest. "AAOOOWWW!" The blue haired boy jumps back, reeling in extreme pain from his hand. As he shakes hand, he turns to see that the one he tried to punch was the big muscular one.

"Nice try fool," the big guy mocks. "My ability can strengthen my body until it's as hard as steel."

"Now that's not fair," Aogami whined.

"Have you ever been punched by steel?" the big guy wind up a fist and aims it at Aogami's head.

*BAM* *CCCRRRAAACCCKKK*

"Yo, what is this?" the big guy's fist hit a wall of solid ice. His punch was still hard enough to greatly crack the wall, but luckily for Aogami, the fist didn't go through.

Everyone stopped fighting momentarily. The leader searched the battlefield and found the blue haired Tokiwadai girl that they were chasing.

"Get back!" the girl yells as her hands are covered in mist. "Huuuaah!" She throws the mist at the ground between the group she ran into, and the group she was running away from. Both sides regrouped into their factions as a wall of ice separates them.

"Why?" the girl asks. "I told you to run. Why are you fighting them?"

"Because I can't stand guys like that who cause trouble for everybody else," Touma answers without looking at her.

"Are you insane?"

"Yep," Tsuchimikado answers for him. "He's always been a do gooder."

"This is for world peace after all," Fukiyose declares.

"What kind of knight gets saved by the damsel?" Aogami pouts.

"You're all crazy!"

*BAM* *BAM*

The group watches as the big guy starts pounding on the ice wall with his hard as steel fists. The wall begins to crack greatly and is on the verge of breaking. The blue haired girl sets up another, thicker wall of ice just as the big guy broke through. He then starts pounding on this next one.

"That won't hold them for long," the Tokiwadai girl mentions.

"Yo," Tsuchimikado calls. "You got a name Miss Tokiwadai?"

"A-ah... It's Sterling. Lilian Sterling."

"You idiot!" Fukiyose bonked Tsuchimikado. "You're supposed to introduce yourself first!"

"Guys!" Touma calls out.

The big one steps back as the smaller one with the jacket steps forward. This one picks up a broken chunk of ice from the ground, he could just barely pick it up with one hand. That shard begins to glow a purple color. The rest of the gang rush back a little as the leader tosses the glowing ice shard at the wall.

"I don't like this," Tsuchimikado tells everyone. "Everyone move back!"

"What is he doing?" Lilian asks out loud.

"It must be his ability," Touma mentions. "But what kind of power does he have?"

*BOOM*

The ice chunk explodes and sends ice shrapnel in their direction. Luckily they were far enough away that there was no damage, just clouds of smoke.

"Get 'em boys!" they heard the leader call out, followed by a roar of a dozen delinquents.

Everyone braced themselves for another round.

"Leave that Tokiwadai girl to me," the leader orders his gang away.

Lilian stood still, nervous and uncertain.

"You must be wondering what I did to your ice, am I right?"

Lilian didn't move, aside from a slight tremble. Her blue eyes showed fear yet determination.

"It's nothing much," the leader reaches inside his pocket and takes out a few coins. "Watch." The coins begin to glow with the same light as the ice chunk from earlier. "I can stir up the potential energy in any object I can touch. The bigger it is, the longer it takes to charge, but that also means there's a lot more energy stored up. Of course all that stored up energy has to be released in some way."

"The explosion..."

"That's right..." the leader throws the coins in her direction.

Lilian stretches her arms, the mist following her hand solidifies into a wall of ice in front of her, and she hopped back. The leader's coins knock on the ice before exploding, destroying the wall and scattering ice debris everywhere.

When the smoke clears Lilian notices the gang leader kneeling on the ground and picking up some of the shattered ice.

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes!" the leader charges up the small bits of ice and hurls them at her.

Lilian makes another shield and jumps away before the explosions. This time the leader didn't give her time to relax, he threw charged coins through the cloud. Lilian barely noticed them in time to set up a skin tight defence, decreasing the damage from the blasts. The girl's body is blown back and slams onto the concrete, unconscious, a thin layer of ice that covered her entire body cracked and shattered all about.

"Sterling!" Touma knocks away an attacker and heads for her direction.

"Kami, stop!" Tsuchimikado warns.

Touma stops and was almost tackled by the big guy who slams onto the concrete with a loud thud. Touma had to deal with a couple more gang members as the big guy gets up.

"The boss wants to deal with her personally," the big guy tells him. "Anyone that wants to get in his way, has to get through me." The big guy charges Touma once again.

The gang boss picks up a large piece of ice from the ground, but he barely gets a grip on it with one hand. He charges the piece of ice and it begins to glow. "This is goodbye, girlie." The leader tosses the glowing ice towards her body.

**XXX**

* * *

**Author****:** I actually forgot what came next, her name or her design. Let's go with her name. I definitely wanted her to be a foreigner (non-Japanese), European-ish names are easier for me to get attached to.

Originally, I wanted an ice themed name to match her powers, that's where 'Isolde' came from. But there doesn't seem to be any solid definitions for it, a few places say it means 'ice' and 'rule' or 'ice' and 'battle', but it's commonly referencing a story called "Tristan and Isolde".

Then I realized that having an ice name for an ice girl is too coincidental. But I liked the uniqueness of it, so I kept it as a middle name.

I tried coming up with a different name, but came up uncertain of what to use until I noticed Mikoto's flower pins. Then I searched up flower names, I went with the lily (I can't remember the exact reason why), or rather I used 'Lilian' to give it a more name-y feel, if that makes any sense. It was then I decided to do the whole 'ice flower' thing, and it gave her a mini theme. But besides the whole flower thing and her name, she really has nothing to do with flowers. She's an ice girl first and foremost.

As for the last name, I wanted to see if there's any names I can use relating to silver, my favorite color. Then I find out about something called 'sterling' silver, it sounded like it could fit for a last name, so I went ahead and took it. 'Sterling' has the meaning of 'excellent' or 'little star'. Well, she is the 'little star' of this story, any 'excellent' parts on the other hand, we'll just have to wait and see.

So all together her name can come up as 'Excellent ice battle lily'. XD That really doesn't match Lilian's soft personality does it?

**Notes:** The big guy of the gang, I made up his power with no influence in mind. But now when I look back at it, it's like Colossus from X-Men, except his skin stays as skin and doesn't actually turn to steel, just becomes as hard as steel.

The gang leader on the other hand, I went ahead and used X-Men's Gambit's power. The ability to charge up an object's molecules to set them to explode. No staff or anything like that, just touch and boom.


	4. Five Minutes

**CH4: Five Minutes**

"... I-I'm not panicking! I'm just wondering what Miss Misaka would want with me. There's rumours that she has an exhibition match today. ... There's no way that's true. Why would it be me? ... Where?"

"Hey!" Mikoto waved from a distance. "Glad to see you're here."

"Miss Misaka..."

"By now you've heard about my exhibition match right?"

"I actually didn't hear about it until today."

"That's because it was just thought up today," Mikoto starts explaining. "When me and Kuroko handed over our report. I requested the free use of one of the fields to test your abilities."

"W-what?"

"For the time being the school will accept our report but they also want to see your powers for themselves. Your level and the evidence at the scene don't match. Which is why this was all arranged. But to everyone else, it's just a show where I am given a 'random' opponent."

"Just to hide the fact that it's part of an investigation? Won't this just attract attention to the incident?"

"Kuroko and Uiharu will be there to represent Judgment, and a representative from Anti-Skill will also be observing. But other than them everyone else is just a spectator. The school is going to use this as propaganda so it'll be recorded."

"Seriously?!"

"I know how you feel, but this is the only way I can test you without getting us into trouble."

"That really doesn't help me at all."

"Just do your best."

"But I don't want to do my best..."

"You really don't want to do this, huh?"

"Of course not!"

"Then how about a challenge? A bet!" Mikoto confidently points her finger at Lilian. "That should get your fighting spirit up!"

"But I don't want anything..."

"Then how about servitude?"

"What?"

"One day," Mikoto demonstrates with a finger. "For one day, the loser will have to do what the winner wants them to do. Every question answered, every request fulfilled. And I already have a few things I'd like to see you do for me... hehehe..."

"M-Miss Misaka...?"

"This is something you can't back out on, understood? I'll see you on the field in a couple hours." Mikoto scurries away.

Lilian stands dumbfounded at this turn of events. "What am I going to do? ... I can't let you handle it! You're the one that got me into this in the first place!"

XXX

* * *

"Welcome everyone!" an announcer broadcasted to the audience, full stands of Tokiwadai students, a couple Judgment members and a mature woman from Anti-Skill. "As you all have heard, our very own Ace of Tokiwadai, Miss Mikoto Misaka, will be giving us a demonstration of her powers."

There were loud cheers as Mikoto walks out onto the field.

"For this the school has selected one random student to take part in this event. And the lucky one is..." the announcer opens an envelope and reads the name. "Miss Lilian Isolde Sterling!"

There weren't as many cheers as Lilian tries to walk to her place as composed as she can, although she's visibly shaking. There were a lot of murmurs amongst the crowd though.

"So that's her?" the Anti-Skill officer asks the two Judgment.

"Yes Ms. Yomikawa," Kuroko answers.

"She doesn't look the type."

"That's what Sissy and the school believes too."

"That's why Miss Misaka had all this set up," Uiharu adds. "To see if it's true."

"Shirai?"

Kuroko turns around to see Kihuno and Maaya behind her. "Awatsuki, Wannai, you're here too?"

"Who wouldn't be here?" Maaya asked. "But tell me, this has something to do with what ever happened with Sterling, right?"

"That's right, I can't tell you anymore at this moment, I'm sorry."

"I just hope things will turn out okay," Kihuno prays.

The announcer just finished the introductions of both Mikoto and Lilian, there were a lot of murmurs on Lilian's story.

Mikoto then mysteriously stretched out her arm and showed off her open hand. "Five minutes."

"Huh?" Lilian wonder what Mikoto could mean.

"I'll give you five minutes before I start attacking. I'll still use my powers to protect myself, but I won't attack until five minutes are up. Give me whatever you've got!"

"Annnnd... Begin!" The announcer chops the air then rushes off field.

Lilian gathers mist in her hands and throws them as ice balls. Without even moving, Mikoto shoots them down. The blue haired girl gathers mist between her hands and shoots it as a straight cloud that's as fast as the wind to where Mikoto is standing.

Not risking contact with the mist, the electromaster readies to launch an electric blast, her hair sparks. Her opponent notices the sparks and has the tip of her mist stream freeze into a shield. An electric blast hits the shield of ice. The shield expands in size as it continues to tank the electricity. Mikoto stops firing her attack and Lilian stops her mist.

"The ice and the mist aren't conducting," Mikoto mumbles. "So she's using pure water for her ice. And her ice spawning ability is limited to where she can throw her mist. There must be a range."

"She let me notice that spark so that I can block her counter," Lilian talks to herself. "Not only that, she's able to react to my mist's speed! I'll need to think of something else. Something I can throw at her really really fast." Lilian kneels down and places one hand on the ground. Mist spreads out from her hand as she lifts off her hand to create a small stand. At the top she placed a ball of ice. In one of her hands she forms a baseball bat.

"Baseball?" Mikoto looks in wonder. "What is she doing?"

Lilian swings as hard as she could, the stand shatters and the ball is sent flying. Mikoto... did nothing, it was a total miss. Lilian repairs the stand and places another ball on it. She swings again, barely hitting the ball and it just plops a step away. One more try, Lilian swings again. This time the ball is sent flying towards Mikoto.

Electromaster stood still as the ball enters her protective field and gets fried.

"What was that?"

"I give off a magnetic aura that warns me of any attacks from all directions," Mikoto explains. "I can also create a normally invisible electric barrier that shields me from small attacks."

"And not even something the size of a baseball going that fast can break through it."

"I have to say though. If that first ball wasn't a miss, it would've hit me. I have to concentrate to produce and keep that barrier, and I had to strengthen it to block that last one."

"What to do now?" Lilian mutters to herself. "... The bat?" She looks at the ice bat that she's holding, she lets it drop to the ground. "No, I won't do that. There has to be something..." Lilian makes a wide circle in front of her with one of her arms, the mist forms into a kind of gigantic shield with legs connecting to the ground.

"What's this now?" Mikoto watches as Lilian pushes the shield with all her might. "A ramming attack?"

The shield's legs have skates on the bottom, and Lilian's mist hovers around them to create a path of ice for the shield to skate on. Mikoto unleashes an electric blast right at the shield. It doesn't stop or break and just continues to get closer.

"She's repairing it as I attack!" Mikoto notices something else she can attack. The electromaster blasts the legs of the shield, causing Lilian to fall forward into it.

The shield doesn't stop but it's now sliding on the ground into Mikoto's direction. The electromaster boosts her legs with magnetism and jumps high enough to let the shield, and Lilian, pass below her.

Lilian creates a curved ramp pipe to stop herself. But the shield flips over and traps her underneath it. The blue haired girl tries pushing it off with little luck. She creates a pillar of ice that pushes the shield off for her. Lilian gets up and dusts herself off.

"Didn't really think that one through, did you?" Mikoto asks.

"It almost worked," Lilian responds.

"Nothing really impressive so far," Kuroko notes. "What she's done up until now are all perfectly within a level 3's capabilities."

"Do you think she's still holding back?" Yomikawa questions.

"She might be," Uiharu answers. "It looks like she's trying to cause as little damage as possible."

"Sterling is going to need to get more serious," Kuroko speaks out. "The free time that Sissy gave her is almost up. And Sissy will take this seriously."

"One more attack," Lilian creates skates on her feet. "Just one more thing I can try!" Her hands gather mist and she skates full speed to Mikoto.

The electromaster readies herself for whatever Lilian might pull off.

Lilian gets closer and closer. Her hands gather more mist.

Mikoto stands still. (What is she planning to do?) One of Lilian's hands stretches out forwards. (That's-?) Mikoto rolls to the side as the blue haired girls skated by. (She's trying to freeze me?) Lilian turns around and heads for Mikoto again. (I can't attack yet.) Mikoto charges her legs and tries to jump over the ice girl.

Lilian raises one arm and creates a thin pillar of ice above her. Mikoto flies into it face first and breaks the small pillar, then tumbles to the ground. Lilian stops skating and turns to Mikoto.

"Miss Misaka?"

"Mnyh!" Mikoto tries to respond but somehow her tongue got stuck on the icicle. "Nmmph! Nrmph!" The electromaster lets out some sparks around the ice pillar until it melts off of her tongue. "Bwah!" Mikoto puts her tongue back in her mouth and seems to be sending electricity to her mouth.

"Are... are you alright?" Lilian asked worriedly.

"NyaI'm Ffinne," Mikoto points at Lilian. "Futhfs thymes uff."

"What?"

Mikoto swallows. "I said, time's up!" She quickly sends a blast the flew by Lilian's face.

Lilian's eyes widened in shock as a large electrical explosion roared behind her. "That was ... Yeah, I felt it too. ... I can't react that fast!"

"That was a warning, get ready now!" The electromaster pulls out a coin and flicks it upwards. "I'm not holding back here!"

"T-that's-!" Lilian freezes in a panic.

"Sissy's using THAT?!" Kuroko gets up and turns to the crowd. "Everyone get ready to shield yourselves! Anyone that can make a protective barrier around the stands, do it!"

Lilian observes Mikoto sparking up. "... Do what? I can't stop her! ... Attack with what? Her field will stop anything I throw at her. ... I can't dodge that! I know you've seen the pool explode every time they test her power!" Instinctively, Lilian unleashes a large amount of mist at the ground in front of her, creating a thick wall of ice that continues to expand. She readies her body with a thick layer of mist that will freeze instantly against any attacks that try to come in contact with her, almost like she's glowing some kind of gas, but will it freeze the coin fast enough? Just in case, Lilian creates a thick layer of ice around her body to absorb whatever her wall doesn't. "I can't avoid it, but I hope I can stop it." With her blue eyes, Lilian watches the coin fall closer to Mikoto.

Mikoto preps her arm and her aim. (It looks like she doesn't want to dodge. Well, I hope she has more faith in her defenses than I do, this is going to hit very, very hard.) The coin drops on Mikoto's thumb and she flicks it at three times the speed of sound.

The coin tears up the field as it flies over. The stands are protected from the force of pressure by various Espers and their variety of powers. Mikoto's railgun flies into Lilian's ice wall and instantly destroys it, sending shards of ice flying everywhere.

Lilian's body flies, tumbles and rolls along the ground before a great distance before it comes to a complete stop. Her armor had frozen the coin just before it could pierce her but there was still enough force to knock her out. The frozen coin looked like a comet right next to her.

"Sterling!" Maaya and Kihuno stood up, worried.

Mikoto dropped her arm and looked at Lilian's body. It didn't seem to be moving.

**XXX**

* * *

**Author:** Lilian's design was pretty simple to come up with. I looked up all the ice users I know of and decided to use King of Fighter's Kula Diamond. Her hairstyle is simple, just blue, and I changed Kula's red eyes to blue, to match the (dyed) hair. So basically she's Kula Diamond in a Tokiwadai uniform.

Oh yeah, Lilian's blue hair is dyed, another reference to Kula, when Kula uses her powers her hair goes from bright brown to ice blue. I'll have to remember to put it in the story, but in case I forget, the reasoning for this is that because of her powers and eyes, she started liking the color blue, especially sky/ice blue. (even though ice is normally clear/white XD). So she went and dyed her hair.

She's also 14-ish (appearance wise) so it works well to match with Mikoto and the other Tokiwadai students (bust seems to be a little bigger though, but don't tell Mikoto that XD). Though she seems like she could be taller than the other Tokiwadai girls. *shrug*

Since using Kula for the basis of her appearance, she's also been quite the influence on Lilian's powers, like the ice skates. But I'll talk more about that in the next chapter.

There's also something... special... about Lilian. You should have noticed it by now. The way she...


	5. Frost Armor

**CH5: Frost Armor  
**

A loud explosion tears through the streets. Clouds cover the area, especially where the explosion blew, right above Lilian.

"Sterling!" Touma screams out.

"Let that be a lesson to you all!" The leader cackles. "No one messes with us!"

"Is that right?" a familiar girl's voice rings in the air, but there's something different about it. It sounded a little deeper...

"That's impossible! How?" the leader waits for the smoke to clear and sees a cocoon like structure of ice on the road. "There's no way, you were knocked out!"

Lilian was getting up from the far end of it. She stood up and held her neck while rotating her head. Her red eyes gave a look of annoyance. "You did knock her out. So now it's my turn to play."

"What are you talking about?"

Lilian's hands gather mist and she places it in front of herself. The ice girl punches the mist ball and a fist sized icicle flies forward.

The boss barely dodged it by rolling to the side. "Now you're asking for it!" He reaches for several chunks of ice and charges them up.

"Funny, that's what I thought of you!" Lilian's hands gather more mist and she swings one arm, sending an arced cloud in the leader's direction.

The gang leader jumped back as the mist hits the road and icicles spear out of them. He throws the charged ice at Lilian and begins picking up some more.

Lilian watches the charged coins fly at her, she creates a large, flat disc and swats them all away in one swing. They explode harmlessly to the side.

"What?"

"Your explosion's useless if they can't reach me," Lilian taunts. "Is that really all you got?" She jumps forward, boosted by creating ice platforms as she jumped, like a launch board.

The gang boss throws the ice shards he charged.

Lilian stops and swings her hand. Her mist flies to the glowing ice shards and covers them in brand new ice. She quickly extends out an ice pole to push the frozen ice bombs back to the gang boss.

"Oh sh-!" the leader turns around to run and his explosions blow behind him. Close enough that he gets pushed down by the blast and feels several shards of ice pound his jacket.

"No matter how you look at it, you can't hurt me," Lilian informs. She swings her arm and a sharp, pointed icicle sword grows out of it. "It's time you gave up."

The boss rolls to face upwards and Lilian's icicle is pointed at his throat.

"Well?"

"Heh! I'm not done yet!"

Lilian notices several things glowing on the ground around her, it was all the ice debris.

"How? You didn't-"

"Touch them? I don't really have to, I can send my power through anything solid and charge up anything they're touching. I'm only limited to small pieces but I can charge a whole lot of them at the same time." The gang leader kicks Lilian off of him and runs away.

Lilian staggers for a little bit but regains her balance. She observes the glowing ice all around her, she's completely surrounded with no way to escape. She then sees the gang leader throw several pebbles and coins at her. Lilian crosses her arms and braces herself, while emitting mist from all around her body.

"Sterling!" Touma cries out as explosions rattle the streets like loud firecrackers.

"Hey! Stop ignoring me!" The big guy tries to attack Touma.

Touma hops back to avoid him.

"Like I said, no one interferes with the boss."

"Do you really think you're unstoppable just because you can be as hard as steel? I'm going to destroy that illusion of yours."

"Heh! I'd like to see you try!" the big guy lunges at Touma.

(He's big, but not very fast.) Touma ducked the swing and hit with a well placed gut punch.

"Bwrah!" the big guy stumbled back holding his stomach. He coughs loudly and stands up, panting.

"Not used to getting hurt?"

"Why you-!" the big guy tries to attack again.

"Kami!" Tsuchimikado called from the side.

Touma recognizes a signal from him when he hears it. Touma dodges again and grabs the attacker's wrist using his right hand. Tsuchimikado dive punches the big guy in the face, causing him to stumble. Tsuchimikado then throws a powerful attack to his gut, the big guy leans forward in pain. Touma follows up with an uppercut to the chin. The big guy stumbles back even more, he can barely balance himself. Touma finishes it with another punch to the face, right between the eyes. The big guy's body hits the ground with a loud, but organic, thud.

The gang turned to see the big guy on the ground and knocked out.

"Hey get up you idiot!" the leader screams an order. "Get up and take care of them!"

"You should worry about your own fight," Tsuchimikado smirks and points to the clearing cloud where the explosions took place.

The gang boss turns to the cloud as it begins to blow away, he can see the figure of Lilian, encased in a tight layer of ice. The ice cracks, then shatters and falls to the ground as Lilian herself moves. She pulls off the ice that was covering her face.

"Almost," Lilian smirks fiendishly.

"H-how?! With all those explosions a small layer of ice like that shouldn't have protected you!"

"You're right," Lilian steps forward menacingly. "Thin armor like that wouldn't have held against multiple blasts, but because it's thinner, I can regenerate it faster."

"Regenerate?"

"For this defence, I cast mist from everywhere on my body, not just my hands. This mist has the special property of freezing whenever and wherever I need defence. Should the armour break, I am constantly casting mist to repair it. It temporarily limits my movement whenever it does freeze, but it's better than taking damage. It was more than enough to protect me from all those small blasts, anything bigger would've gotten through. Of course I can also make it thicker if I need to but that's a lot more impractical. And I actually have to concentrate to keep it active."

"D-damn you!" the boss grabs a big ice chunk with two hands and charges it. "With both my hands I can charge twice as fast!" He picks it up and swings the heavy bomb.

Lilian encases it in an ice tower between them. Thin mist blows from her body. The boss dives and ducks away as it blows, creating the largest explosion yet, as well as sending frozen shrapnel in every direction.

The gang leader looks back to see a large piece of ice sticking out of Lilian's eye, stopped by her armour. The icicle and the piece of armour frozen around it break off and fall to the ground.

"If that blast had hit directly, my armour wouldn't be able to protect me. However, my defences are more than enough to handle the shrapnel. Shrapnel that you don't have any defences against! Go ahead! Make more bombs! I'll freeze them in the air and watch as the frozen debris impale you!"

"You crazy witch!" The boss grabs some nearby pebbles, charges them and tosses them at her. He gets up quickly and makes a run for it.

Lilian freezes the airborne bombs in a single block and pushes it with an ever extending icicle form her hand. The bombs blow, it was close enough to the retreating leader to stumble him, but more importantly he could feel several shards of ice penetrate his clothing, with none going into his skin, yet.

"The boss is running! Let's get out of here!" one of the gangsters called out.

"But what about-?"

"Leave him!"

"Where do you think you're going?!" Lilian swings her arm, an arced cloud of mist flies faster than the fleeing gang and blocks their escape with incredibly large spears of ice. She swings her other arm in the opposite direction and more spears emerge pointing the other way. "After what you tried to do to Lilian, did you really think I'd let you off that easily?"

"Tch!" The gang boss scavenges the ground and charges whatever he manages to pick up.

"You never give up do you? Am I going to have to shove mist down your throat and freeze your lungs? Or better yet, I'll make icicles explode from your insides!"

The gang leader throws everything that he picked up, Lilian freezes them midair, she sees the leader starting to take off his jacket. His bombs blow and clouds cover the space between them. Lilian notices a leather jacket flying through, she swats it away effortlessly.

"Gotcha!" The leader grabbed Lilian's arm, twisted it around her back and placed a hand on her cheek from behind.

"Y-you bastard!"

The gang leader feels his hands getting frozen over. "You're too late! I know you can feel it. I'm charging you up! I might lose my hands or even my arms, but you... there'll be nothing left of you! I've won here! Ahahahaha! PWUH!"

Lilian felt the gang leader let go of her at the same time as she heard someone getting hit. Whoever attacked was too late, her body was already fully charged. She collapsed onto her knees from the terror of death. Looking at her hands, she sees the glow of the gang boss's power. There was nothing left for her...

"I'm sorry... Lilian... I screwed up... yeah... I'll see you on the other side..."

With that, Lilian's red eyes close, she waits for the feeling of death.

It felt like... a warm hand on top of her head.

"Hey, you're alright now."

Lilian hears the voice of one of the high schoolers that fought with her. She opens her eyes slowly and sees the same road she saw when she closed them. A quick look at her hands reveal that she's not glowing anymore.

"I'm... alive...?" Lilian's blue eyes widen in surprise. "But how?"

The hand that was on her head pulls back, "This right hand of mine negates any special ability it comes into contact with."

Lilian turns around and sees a certain spiky blacked haired boy, smiling at her. Her cheeks suddenly felt a little warm.

Meanwhile, the remnants of the gang trembled.

"Did you see that?"

"He stopped the boss's power somehow!"

"We need to get out of here!"

Those remaining turn to see if there's a way around the spiky spears of ice. They only see Fukiyose and Tsuchimikado waiting for them.

"Yo!" the bond boy waves and smiles. Fukiyose cracks her knuckles, the gang raises their hands in surrender.

Not long after, sirens could be heard coming closer.

"That's-" Lilian gets up in a hurry. "Please! Tell your friends not to say anything about me!"

"Huh? Why?"

"I don't want any trouble at school, I have a hard enough time over there as it is already."

"But you go to Tokiwadai..."

"Not all of us are geniuses! Have ever been with a really mean teacher?"

"Actually, we just got away from one," Touma closes his eyes and starts giggling. "Ahehehe..." When he opens them again, he sees Lilian skating away. "Not even a 'thank you'? I guess its fine, we'll leave it at that."

**XXX**

* * *

**Author****: **Now about Lilian's power.

I did want her to have ice powers, but from the scene at the start where she's making the ice flower, I made her power primarily mist, with the ability to freeze the air it surrounds.

As I said before, Kula Diamond was a huge influence on Lilian, like the ice skates and the ice wall (though Kula's is perfectly flat and smooth, Lilian's is more like a rough cave wall or a bunch of big icicles.). While the icicle sword I originally something from an SRW mecha called Fabularis, Kula also an attack that lets her do something similar.

Actually, after Kula, the Fabularis is probably the 2nd biggest influence. (you can easily look up "2nd srw og Fabularis" to see all of its attacks.) There's another ice mecha in the game called the Gaddess, but I think the only thing I took from that was the "frozen tower with the bombs in it" (this ice mecha has a lot of magical elements)

The Frost Armor came from a one off character in the Black Cat manga (his armor could stop bullets and it completely covers him).

There's still more ice power stuff to come in the next chapter, when we see the rest of the exhibition/battle between Mikoto and Lilian.


	6. Storm of Ice and Lightning

**CH6: Storm of Ice and Lightning  
**

Mikoto observes Lilian's body. It took a few seconds for the shock to set in, but the audience roared out both in awe and in worry.

(Something's not right...) Mikoto thinks to herself. (I could feel the coin breaking through the ice wall, but that sudden freezing just before it hit her... completely stopped it. At least, that's what I felt.)

"And the battle is over!" The announcer rushes out to address the crowd. "Well, what else could you expect from our very own Ace! Let's hear it for Mikoto Misaka!"

The crowd cheers out loud, but Mikoto pays no attention to them.

"Sissy!" Kuroko warps right next to Mikoto. "Sissy is everything alright?"

"Kuroko..." Mikoto sounded annoyed. "You're not worried about her?"

"Of course I am!" Kuroko protested. "Did you really have to use your railgun?"

"She was very confident in her defences," Mikoto answered.

"But you really hurt her!"

"Did I?" Mikoto goes back to thinking. She tries to replay the events that just happened in her mind. (Alright, she had set up a wall of ice, and covered herself in a mist. According to the reports, that mist will freeze anything that comes close to her and she can extend its range, but it requires a significant amount of concentration so she can't have it on constantly. Though she only needed to focus it right in front of her.

I have no idea how fast she can freeze things with that, but if a thin all encompassing layer is enough to stop explosive debris, would a concentrated, thicker field be enough to stop my coin? Hm...)

"Hey!" Mikoto calls out. "You can stop playing possum! I know you managed to freeze my coin before it hit you. Did you already forget what we agreed upon?"

"Sissy?"

Lilian suddenly opens her eyes and slowly gets up. "Haaa..." she scratches the back of her head as she sighed. "And here I thought I could give myself a nice little nap." Lilian stands up, puts her hands to her hips and cracks her neck a little. The ice girl poses ready with mist circling her hands, her red eyes show that she is ready to fight again.

"So NOW you're taking this seriously," Mikoto sighs. "I thought I told you not to hold back."

"She didn't," Lilian answers. "Unfortunately for her, that was the best she could do. Now it's a different story."

"'Her'? 'She'?" Kuroko repeated.

"Looks like my bluff paid off," Mikoto notices. "But her personality changed. Isn't this the same as what was said in the reports?"

"You're right," Kuroko agrees. "Along with a change of personality, she showed better control and creativity with her ability."

"Kuroko," Mikoto warned her friend as her hair sparks up. "Get out of here. Things are going to heat up."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Lilian mocks as the swirls of mist intensified.

The announcer walks to the middle of both girls as Kuroko warps out.

"Alright everyone it looks like that was just the warm up round! The real thing is about to start! In 3... 2... 1... Gooooo!" the announcer chops the air and makes a break for it.

Lilian summons up a pillar that blocks Mikoto's electric blast. The ice girl jumps to the side and fires ice shards from her hand.

(She fires her mist forward and has them freeze while flying, the spinning of the mist acts like a muzzle.) Mikoto observes as she blasts down the icicles. The electric girl sends another blast aimed at the torso.

Lilian manages to avoid the attack. She stops and creates a giant cloud of mist behind herself. "Fly!" With the point of a finger, dozens upon dozens of ice shards shoot from the mist towards Mikoto.

Mikoto blasts the ones that have a good chance of hitting her, but the unending numbers and speed threaten to overwhelm her. (I can't stop them all!) Mikoto stops blasting the ice shards and watch as they fly closer towards her face.

A black cloud rises from the ground, engulfing Mikoto and shattering any icicle the flies into it.

"What's that?" Lilian asks. "... Iron sand? Sand shouldn't be able to stop these icicles."

"That's because they're constantly vibrating, even while flying through the air," Mikoto explains as her black cloud forms a barrier in front of her. "The constant shaking creates friction and heat when they connect with your ice. With how much sand I have there's no way any of your ice is getting through!" Mikoto fires her sand towards Lilian.

The sand cloud tears through any ice the flies into it. Lilian swings both her arms in opposite directions, crisscrossing giant icicles spear out of the ground and stops the black cloud.

"So," Lilian calls from behind the cloud and icicles. "Small pieces get destroyed practically on touch but bigger things take time."

Mikoto sees Lilian rising on top of an ever growing tower of ice. The ice girl's hands were raised above her and a huge cloud is forming. The electromaster calls back her sand.

"Take this!" Lilian throws the cloud and turns it into a gigantic ice ball the size of a car.

"As if!" Mikoto forms her iron sand sword and swings it at the ice ball. The sword extends and enlarges.

The black sword digs into the ice ball as it flies closer. The ball splits in half just in time for the halves to fall harmlessly around Mikoto. The black sword continues to extend towards Lilian.

The ice girl shoots mist towards the iron sand and freezes it. Several chunks of ice fall with iron sand frozen inside them. Mikoto stops her sword and launches an electric blast. The blast is blocked by a well timed ice shield. Both sides cease their attacks.

Lilian and Mikoto stare down each other, smiling. They were enjoying this.

"Now this is a conundrum," Lilian speaks. "Your electricity can go through my mist, so I have to use ice to counter it. Your sand can shatter my ice while my mist can freeze your sand. It's a crazy cycle with no end in sight."

"Yeah," Mikoto agrees. "I'm just amazed that you can react to my electric attacks."

"Only barely," Lilian mentions. "I can sense changes in the air through my mist, that includes stuff like static and positive/negative charges, which I assume is what you use to fire off your shocks. It's a lot easier to dodge where you're aiming than what you're firing."

"Sooner or later one of us is going to have to give. And it's not going to be me."

"Pretty bold claim," Lilian recreates the cloud behind her. "From a frozen pin cushion!" From the cloud flew more ice spikes.

"Here we go again!" Mikoto sends her black cloud to intercept the spikes that threaten to hit her. "But this time..." Mikoto unleashes electric shocks into the fray. The combined attacks push back the flying icicles.

Lilian fires mist at the side of her ice tower, she jumps off and creates a board made of ice that she uses to surf down the side. Her icicle firing cloud vanishes. As Lilian slides, she continuously fires mist to fix her path. The electromaster sees her descent and adjusts her attacks. Soon the surfing girl is being chased by a cloud of iron sand and waves of electricity destroying the tower.

Lilian creates a ramp, she jumps it with a little ice boost. The ice girl creates a shield to block an electric attack, her free hand has large amounts of mist swirling around it. Pointing that hand at Mikoto, a large ice blade shoots forth. Smooth surfaces yet sharp edges, Mikoto's lightning can only break of small pieces while it continues to grow towards her.

(Not even my iron sand can-) Mikoto magnetically super jumps back, just before it smashes into the ground. She sees that Lilian somehow managed to prop herself onto the giant frozen blade with her ice board and begins sliding down it. Using the altitude advantage, Mikoto fires lightning bolts at the ice surfer, Lilian's ice shield protects her from the blasts.

Mikoto loses altitude and lands, then slips off of her feet immediately. (What the-?) The electromaster looks at the whole field. It's been completely frozen over. (How? When?).

"Hey! Thunder head!" Lilian calls attention to herself as she reaches ground level but still has enough momentum to continue surfing. Though now the back end of the board, and her rear foot, is giving off mist, as if pushing the board to go faster. "Did you like the view?" Lilian's arms are both covered in by ice swords, and she's surfing towards Mikoto!

The electromaster rolls away, narrowly evading the frozen blades, but she continues sliding on her back. "Tch!" Mikoto calls for her iron sand and scatters it around the ice she's about to slide into. She comes to a complete stop and picks herself up.

Lilian stops herself and gets off the board. "Using your iron sand to keep yourself from slipping. I thought that you would slip around a bit more before you could figure out a way to control yourself. Guess that's why you're the Ace of this school."

"You're something else yourself," Mikoto compliments. "Just how did you freeze the field without me noticing? Even though we were in the heat of things I would've noticed any stray mist that tried to get past my attacks and stopped it."

"You're the Ace, try to figure it out!" Lilian charges forward through the slippery ice. But she had perfect footing on it.

(She's freezing her feet to the ice with each step to keep herself from slipping.) Mikoto notices. (And I have to keep some of my iron sand at my feet so that I don't slip. But is she seriously going to go melee? I guess we have exhausted ourselves in this match.) Mikoto creates her iron sand sword and heads forth.

At the first clash, Mikoto's sword easily slices through one of Lilian's. Lilian tries to counter with her second sword but Mikoto manages to jump away. The ice girl repairs the broken sword and chases after her. Mikoto cuts down one of the swords again and Lilian avoids a follow up. The ice girl thrusts with the half sword while it reforms, Mikoto jumps back, the sword extends much farther and longer than it was originally, forcing Mikoto to bend backwards, down to her knees.

The electromaster loses balance and falls to the ground, she sees the extended sword above her swing up, ready to come down. Mikoto rolls away as the sword crashes onto the ice. The ice sword breaks from the impact, revealing an empty interior.

(The sword is hollow?) Mitoko barely registers that fact when she notices Lilian charging at her.

The swordsgirls clash once again, and again one of Lilian's swords gets cut. This time the ice girl swings the broken blade horizontally. Mikoto super jumps away, Lilian points her other sword at the electromaster and extends it furiously.

(They don't need to be broken?!) The electromaster fires a powerful blast at the sword. An explosion on impact, but the blade continues through the clouds. Mikoto swings down her own sword to defend. The ice sword splits on contact with the iron sand, harmlessly flying past Mikoto. (Why is it hollow? She knows that using solid ice has a better chance of getting through my iron sand.) Mikoto lands on the icy ground while she continuously blocks the ice sword. The attack forced her to slide back a bit but she uses her extra iron sand to strengthen her footing. Mikoto struggles against the endlessly extending sword of ice. Her face is suddenly blasted by mist, taking her by surprise. Mikoto's sword froze and drops to the ground.

Mikoto feels that the assault had stopped, but even though she hasn't opened her eyes yet, she knows that she's been trapped, she could sense it through her electromagnetic field. (She surrounded me in ice. Everything feels cold, there must be mist in here. That hollow sword, the reason it was hollow as so that she could shoot mist from the inside of it. Then that means that all those icicles she rained down on me were also full of mist. That's how she froze the field, she wasn't aiming for me, she was hoping to take me by surprise using the frozen field. Then this must be why she didn't tell me how she did that, to trap me in here.)

Lilian smashes her swords together to break them off of her hands. "... She'll be fine. I didn't freeze her. They've got half an hour to break her out of there. ... Well, yeah! Going overboard was the only way I can beat her. ... What are you talking about? I was in perfect control! ... Tell that to her! ... Thunder? Now that you mention it..."

Lilian looks up at the sky and sees a whole bunch of dark clouds forming and coming closer.

"That's not normal," Lilian speaks to herself.

The crystal dome began to glow, cackles of electricity begin to race across the ice, cracking it.

"NNRRGGAAHH!" Mikoto destroys the dome with a blast of electrical energy. Her body surges with power as she walks forward slowly. The sky darkens even deeper from the gathering clouds. "Sorry, but I definitely don't feel like losing. I'm ending this here and now!" Mikoto calls forth more power to surround herself in while still walking.

"Bring it, Thunder head!" Lilian manifests a lot of mist from her body. She then stumbles a little and one hand holds half her face. "Lilian! What are you doing?"

"You can't do this alone! Let me help Isolde!"

"Fine!" Lilian pulls the hand away from her face, revealing a blue eye. "Just don't hold me back!"

Lilian prepares by manifesting and gathering mist around herself. She swings one arm, launching mist towards Mikoto and a bunch of gigantic ice pillars spear out of the ground. The ice pillars are vaporized by a bolt from the sky, Mikoto didn't even stop walking. Lilian tries it again. The same results. The ice girl then uses both hands for twice the pillars. Again, those were vaporized by lightning from the sky.

Mikoto walks ever closer to Lilian. "If that's all you have," Mikoto speeds up her walking. "Then this fight is already finished." The electromaster begins to jog. "Here I come!" Mikoto breaks into a full out run as her electricity cackles around her, tearing up the field.

"Isolde?"

"I'll leave our defence to you!" Lilian charges forward, covered in mist, causing icicles to spear out randomly behind her.

Mikoto gathers her electrical power onto one hand. Lilian focuses her mist on one hand as well, creating a short, thick icicle filled with mist.

"YAAAAAAA!"

"HAAAAAAA!"

The air roars, the field tears up, electricity lights the sky while ice freezes the land. Then, a blast of lightning rips the land apart as mist flies into the air. The Espers protecting the audience just barely managed to block the assault of ice and lightning.

...

Smoke covers the whole area, no one can see what is happening on the field.

"Is everyone alright?" Yomikawa yells to the audience.

While a few of the Espers that protected the stands had fallen, there were still some that managed to hold.

"It looks like a few people fainted," Uiharu observes. "If those two did that while they were closer..."

"Don't think about it Uiharu," Kuroko orders her partner. "Right now we need to figure out what's going on in the field!"

"Wait!" Yomikawa chases after Kuroko. "I'm coming as well."

Kuroko and Yomikawa race through the thick clouds towards where they last saw Mikoto and Lilian. There they saw two silhouettes, they were back to back.

"Sissy?"

One of the shadows fell down to one knee, panting hard. The other, fell face flat onto the ground. The first shadow managed to get up, her hair sparks a bit.

"Sissy! You're alright!" Kuroko heads for the standing figure. The silhouette falls backwards, right next to the other one.

**XXX**

* * *

**Author:** A couple of non-ice influences for Lilian's power here.

The raining icicle attack with the mist cloud behind her, is based off of Fate/Stay Night's Gate of Babylon, with a bit of Fabularis again (freezing the field, but then again, ice users have always been able to do that). The giant ice sword is also from the Fabularis (except Lilian's isn't as spiky)

The surfing ice board while she uses her power to thrust herself forward, I got that from One Piece, where a guy with fire powers uses a boat that uses his fire power to move around.

The ice shields blocking Mikoto's attacks, both Kula from KoF (whose ice shield can stop attacks that can destroy buildings as well as several energy powers) and random ice mooks in InFamous 2 (they have shields that actually block electricity, though they weaken and break eventually).

The hollow ice thing I made up to accommodate for Lilian's mist limitation (her freezing capabilities is limited to wherever she can send her mist).

Next up, a sharing of secrets between Lilian and Mikoto, and spending the day looking for Touma. Also, my thought process on Lilian's... condition.


	7. A Gift of Ice

**Final CH: A Gift of Ice**

Lilian stirs her eyes, strong light was shining into them. She awakens in one of the school's nurse's room on one of the two beds. The sun was setting but its light was still shining brightly into the room.

"Oh, you're awake!"

Lilian turns to see Mikoto sitting in a chair right beside her.

"Miss Misaka!" Lilian gets up suddenly.

"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down Sterling," Mikoto motions for Lilian to slow down. "You just woke up."

"S-sorry..." Lilian repositions herself on the bed to a comfortable sitting position. "What... happened?"

"We both lost consciousness after our attacks hit," Mikoto answers. "I woke up first, just as we were being transported here. I guess we'll just call it a draw. No one that bet."

"A draw?" Lilian questions, her blue eyes gave a look of guilt. "No, that's not right. You won it from the start. You didn't take it seriously until later on."

"I just wanted to see if you really were capable of pulling off what you did against that gang," Mikoto mentions happily. "It turns out you were, and then some."

Lilian breathed deeply, then entered a deep thought. There was silence for a short moment. "... I guess we should tell her."

"Huh?

"Miss Misaka, can you keep a secret?"

"A secret?"

"The truth is, that fight was unfair."

"Unfair how? Besides the fact that you're registered as a level 3 and I'm a level 5."

"You weren't just fighting me, you were fighting me... and Isolde."

"Isolde? Who's Isolde? More importantly, I was being tag teamed? How?"

"Isolde..." Lilian closes her blue eyes, and opens them, but now they're red. "Is me."

"What? You're not making any sense."

"After your railgun temporarily knocked out Lilian, I took over."

Lilian didn't say anything afterwards as she let Mikoto take in and decipher the information.

"A sudden change in personality as well as an increase in power... is this some kind of dissociative identity disorder?"

"That's right," Lilian closes one eye and it re-opens as blue. "We've been together for so long that we don't even remember how or when this happened."

"And you guys share not only the same body, but the same power, that's..." Mikoto pauses for a moment as she tries to sort out her thoughts. "Actually, I don't really know what to think of that. On one hand it sounds really cool. But on the other it sounds… off, like it shouldn't even be possible. How do you get around with that?"

"Who should explain this?"

"You better do it Lilian, you're better that this kind of stuff." Lilian closes her remaining red eye and it comes back blue.

"Alright," Lilian takes a few seconds to control her breathing. "Normally, Isolde lets me be the one in control. She almost never comes out or even want to come out. Though she can still take over easily whenever I'm knocked out or asleep."

"She said you were knocked out by my railgun."

"I was, I came to when you and her were sword fighting."

"So all that crazy stuff you pulled after I used my railgun, that was all Isolde?"

"Yes."

"Is Isolde that much better with your powers?"

"Yeah, she's always thinking about how to improve them. She can be pretty creative, like with that hollow sword of hers. Apparently she's had that 'hollow ice filled with mist' idea for weeks and I only just found about it during that demonstration."

"That even took me by surprise," Mikoto admits. "Everything that you can do, she can do better?"

"Better and faster," Lilian adds. "She can react to your attacks much better than I can, not to mention she's better at splitting her focus between offence and defense simultaneously. I usually focus on defense, whenever we share control, I'm always in charge of any defensive measures."

"Is there anything else?"

"She's kind of overprotective of me. … Oh yes you are! … Are too! … Are too! … Are too! …"

"Ahem," Mikoto calls attention to herself. "Honestly, I still don't really know what to make of this. Tokiwadai, Anti-Skill and Judgment have gathered all the information that they needed from our demonstration. Because of the circumstances needed for you to pull off what you pulled off, they don't know whether to reclassify you as a level 4 or not."

"Oh great…" Lilian sighed deeply. "I can't. I don't really care about being called a level 4, but I'm definitely not one of them. I'm having a hard time being a level 3 as it is. … Don't give me that! It's all your fault! … If you hadn't gone crazy- … I would have been perfectly fine losing that bet! … Argh! First the whole thing with that gang and now this! This is too much!"

"Hello?" Mikoto waves as she tries to call attention to herself.

"S-sorry," Lilian apologized. "We don't normally argue like this in front of other people. At least I don't. We talk to each other sometimes, but we try to avoid doing so."

"Do you really have to talk out loud though? You can't talk with your thoughts or something?"

"No, we can't read each other's minds. It's even worse when we share control, we take turns talking, and only one of us can talk at any time. I know people are thinking I'm crazy whenever we start to have any kind of conversation."

"Crazy? After what you and Isolde just did, I think you'll be getting a lot of attention."

"Oh no…" Lilian face palmed. "I'm not good with people."

"You're going to have to get used to it, there's a pile of envelopes and presents just outside the door."

"Are you serious?"

"Yep. I had specifically asked that no one but me be allowed into this room, so everyone just left everything right beside the door. I'm actually allowed to stay overnight here with you if I wanted to."

"Really? Wait, are you?"

"It's tempting to get away from Kuroko for a night, I'll give it at least that much."

Lilian didn't know how to respond to that and the room fell into silence for just a moment.

"Still… I've never run into someone, er… people like you two."

"You can refer to us as one person. You will keep this to yourself, right?"

"Of course! Mikoto Misaka is very good at keeping secrets!" Mikoto smiles. "Though it doesn't feel right if only one side is keeping the other's secret. Tell you what, to make things even, ask me anything that you want to know and I'll answer it honestly."

"Anything?"

"Yep, anything."

"Are you sure?" Lilian asks again. "Because the only thing that I had in mind, involves that 'Sisters' rumour."

Mikoto jerks a bit. She had already promised to tell her whatever she wanted to know. If it's going to be about the Sisters… "D-don't be ridiculous!" Mikoto tries to laugh it off and change the subject. "That's just a crazy rumour!"

Lilian rummages through her pocket and pulls out her cell phone. She browses around until a certain file is found. "Here it is." Lilian shows off the picture.

"W-W-W-WHAAAAT?!"

The picture was of Misaka 10032 and Last Order clinging onto a certain spiky haired boy in the underground mall, while Mikoto herself, both in the picture and in the room right now, is standing shocked.

"I think this was too touchy," Lilian concludes from Mikoto's reaction. "May be I should think of something else to ask you."

"N-no…" Mikoto calms down a bit. "I said I'd tell you, so I'll tell you. I don't think there's any use in hiding it anyway if you've already seen this much. But it's a very long story. And you have to absolutely promise me that you'll never tell anyone about this."

Lilian was silent for a moment, she could feel Mikoto's intensity. "Okay, I promise."

"Alright then…"

"What do you mean we should do the pinky thing? Do we look like kindergarteners? … Just because it's cute doesn't mean that we should-"

"Let's do it," Mikoto interrupts, though it looks like she's a little embarrassed.

"Huh?"

"I said let's do it," Mikoto repeats all flustered up. "Isolde too."

One of Lilian's blue eyes close and opens up red. Mikoto and Lilian wrap their pinkies in two crossing pairs.

"Just to let you know," Mikoto starts. "I'm going to take this promise very, very seriously. So you better lay down your life on it."

There was an audible 'gulp' sound from Lilian. They formed the pact and swore upon it. Then they released each other and Lilian returns her red eye back to blue.

Mikoto then tells the story of her Sisters as Lilian listens intently, posing a few questions here and there. It was a long story indeed, and a very personal one for Mikoto.

XXX

* * *

"And that… is my secret…"

Lilian stayed quiet. That was too much to take in, for both of them. They didn't know what to say, even if they had something to say they wouldn't know how to say it.

"I can tell you're worried about all this," Mikoto breaks her silence. "Well don't. This is my secret and I will deal with it, just as Isolde is your secret and you'll live with that."

"Miss Misaka…"

"It looks like I'll be staying here tonight after all," the Ace gets up, noticing the darkness outside the window, she stretches and yawns. "It's gotten really late. Good night, Sterling."

"You can call me Lilian."

"Excuse me?"

"You know about me and Isolde. Lilian Isolde Sterling is my full name after all. While you can refer to either of us as Sterling, if you want to direct anything specific to any one of us, just use Lilian for me and Isolde for her."

"So Lilian for the softer one, Isolde for the other one, or Sterling for both?"

"Huh, that actually sounds more confusing than it needs to be," Lilian scratches her head.

"No, I think I got it… Lilian." Mikoto comments, but she crosses her arms and taps her foot, as if she's really thinking hard about something. "But now you've put me in a position that I don't think I'll be able to pay you back."

"Y-you don't really need to," Lilian smiles. "I can only imagine the kinds of responsibility you have with your reputation."

"You're right about that," Mikoto sighs. "Not even some of my closest friends call me by my first name. But… they don't know about the Sisters. You're the only one so far that I've trusted this secret to, everyone else that knows about this were either part of the experiment, or they found out about it on their own. You're the only one that knows about it and wasn't involved in some way."

"Miss Misaka?"

"It's Mikoto."

"What?"

"Because I trust you with the secret of my Sisters, that's over nine thousand lives scattered around the world on your shoulders. It's a much heavier burden then deciding which name to call me by. Besides, they all refer to themselves as 'Misaka'."

"I-I can't. I can't do it. If everyone else in the school hears me call you by your first name…"

"That is going to be a problem isn't it?" Mikoto scratches her head. "Then how about this? On school grounds, just call me Misaka like everyone else. Outside the school, you can call me Mikoto. Well?"

"M-Miss Misaka, I can't-"

"MI-KO-TO."

"W-we're still in the school grounds."

"Hmph, You win this one."

"Huh? Thunder head?"

"What was that?" Mikoto was steaming.

"I-it wasn't me!"

"It was Isolde wasn't it? Why I oughta-!" Mikoto sparks up.

"M-Miss Misaka! This is still my body, and I just recovered from our battle!"

"Tch!" Mikoto scoffs and backs down.

"Phew!" Lilian wipes sweat off of her forehead.

"Well, goodnight, Lilian." Mikoto hops on the other bed and pulls the covers over her body.

"Goodnight Miss Misaka."

XXX

* * *

"AHH!"

Mikoto awakens to a short scream and a loud thud. A few seconds later, she feels hands coming to grab her. Instinctively, she shocks the person trying to reach for her. At the end of it, she still feels that same person still standing, just frozen in place. (That's not Kuroko…) She turns around to see a frozen shell of Lilian. The ice cracks and shatters, falling to the floor. Mikoto sits up as Lilian emerges from the ice.

"What was that about?!" Lilian asks all panicky.

"Sorry," Mikoto apologizes. "I have an… interesting morning routine."

"Randomly shooting electric blasts is a part of your morning routine?"

"No," Mikoto answers calmly. "They're perfectly aimed electric blasts."

"…"

"So what's the matter?"

"Ah! The time! We're going to be late for the first classes!"

"What classes? They canceled school today."

"They what?"

"I didn't tell you?" Mikoto moves to the edge of the bed and lets her legs hang, she scratches the back of her head. "Our battle caused some damage to the school. Thankfully the people watching were alright thanks to some of the students putting up barriers with their powers. But the school was hit by ice and lightning. And I kinda caused a city wide black out that lasted for a few hours." Mikoko tilted her head and stuck out the tip of her tongue embarrassingly.

"A day off…" Lilian ponders the thought. "What should I do today?" She notices how dirty her clothes are. "A nice shower and a change of clothes would be a good start." The blue haired girl moves towards the door.

"Wait!" Mikoto stops Lilian. "I thought so."

"What?"

"I increased my magnetic field temporarily," Mikoto explains. "I can feel a bunch of people just outside that door."

"Already?" Lilian sighs and walks back. "How am I going to get out of here? … The window? I can't walk on walls! … Freeze myself to the wall? That might actually work."

"I'll come with you, Kuroko and Uiharu are going to be busy with Judgment work and I don't have any plans today."

"Neither do I," Lilian admits. "I'll probably just continue to work on that ice flower."

"Oh, that." Mikoto said with a hint of annoyance. "Do you even know how to find him?"

"I… actually haven't thought about that."

Mikoto face palms. "Haa… I guess this'll beat aimlessly wondering around the city at least."

The two girls climb out of the window and make their way down the wall. Mikoto is just walking on the wall while Lilian freezes her hands and feet to it and climbs down like it was a ladder or a cliff.

"I have a question," Mikoto speaks out. "Do you actually control the ice or just the mist?"

"Just the mist," Lilian answers. "I can't even break any ice that I make. I just make more ice to break ice. Here." Lilian holds out a hand and has it incased in a ball of ice. "See how it completely covers my hand? Now if I want to break it…" The ball cracks and shatters, leaving behind only her hand. "I created ice from the inside of the ball on my hand. The pressure from making new ice and forcing it into a solid shape breaks the already existing ice."

The two girls make it to the ground and begin to head towards to the shower room.

"Is there a limit to how much force that has?"

"I haven't really tested it on anything other than my own ice. I can imagine pushing apart a pair of cars like this though. I just need enough space for enough ice to freeze and expand."

"Then the only limit is how much space there is and how strong the ice is. I have some more things I want to ask but let's just wait until we're out of the grounds."

"Whoa," Lilian stops suddenly.

"What is it?"

"That," Lilian points to a big icicle sticking out of the school.

"Oh," Mikoto sounded unaffected. "I told you we damaged the school. They're getting some of the students to help with that."

"But how did that-? … The last attack when you and Miss Misaka clashed?"

"That's the most likely cause of it," Mikoto answers. "Isolde was constantly spewing mist and recreating ice to counter my thunder punch. Of course when things get as intense as that, it can be quite hard to control your powers. I bet if we got closer we'll be able to see some burnt marks from my lightning striking the wall. May be even some damaged windows or cracks in the wall?"

"Why do you sound so proud of that?"

"I can't be proud of my own power?"

"Not when you lose control of it!"

"Pipe down or someone will notice us!" Mikoto hushed Lilian. "Like I said before, we'll talk more once we get out of here."

XXX

* * *

After taking a shower and getting new sets of clothes, Lilian and Mikoto sneak away from the school.

"I don't know how we pulled that off, but we did it!" Mikoto celebrates.

"Miss Misaka, do you know any place that sells flowers?"

Mikoto slaps Lilian in the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"We're off school grounds, I thought I told you that you can call me by my first name."

"That doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it!"

"Okay fine, but just know that you have that option."

"Oh just shut up."

"Excuse me?"

"I-I was talking to Isolde! Really!"

Mikoto face palms. "I see why people would think you're crazy. Now a flower shop… I know a good place. Follow me!"

As Mikoto leads the way, they start to discuss several things. Such as backgrounds, tastes, likes and dislikes. When they reach a certain building with a screen on the side, Lilian stops momentarily.

"What is it?"

"Right, that building…" Lilian takes out her cell phone and rummages through the images inside it again. "Oh, it is that one."

"What are you mumbling about now?"

"Here, look."

"Let me see… WHAAAAAT?!"

Lilian almost dropped her phone from Mikoto's surprised yell. The picture she had was of Mikoto wearing a white and polka dotted swimsuit on the screen of the building.

"H-H-HOW?"

"I just happened to pass by and I saw something interesting."

"But did you have to take a picture of it?"

"If you saw something interesting, wouldn't you want to take a picture of it?"

"Ugh…" Mikoto sulked. "That's… true…"

"Actually… … yeah you're right, he was there."

"Who?" Mikoto is sounding fearful of the answer.

"That spiky haired guy, Kamijou was it? He was looking at the screen while you were playing around."

"WHAAAT?" Mikoto grabs Lilian's uniform and starts shaking her. "Are you sure? You better be telling the truth cause if you're messing with me then I'll fry you to a crisp."

"I-I-I'm s-s-sure of-f-f i-i-it."

Mikoto releases her grip and Lilan wobbles a bit. The ice girl coughs a little and looks up. Mikoto's face has a mortified look.

"Miss Misaka?"

"He saw… I was… and he…" Mikoto was mumbling utter nonsense as her face reddens up.

Lilian places a mist covered hand on Mikoto's forehead. Large amounts of steam blew out from the contact.

"Wow, she's really burning up. My hand might've melted if I didn't have my mist covering it."

"FUUNNYYAAHH!" Mikoko unexpectedly bursts away into a full run, like a cartoon.

"M-Miss Misaka!" Lilian skates after her at full speed. "Miss Misaka wait! … Don't ask me! I don't know what a 'funyah' is either!"

Mikoto suddenly stops and Lilian skates past her in order to slow down to a safe stop.

"Why do you even have that picture anyway?!" Mikoto angrily points at Lilian. "I want you to delete it right now!"

"Eh?!"

"Come on, do it already or I'll do it for you!" Mikoto's hair sparks up, she fires a warning shot to Lilian's side, the ice girl jerked away.

Lilian sighs deeply, "At least we sold it for a good price…"

"Hang on a second!" Mikoto walks over. "What do you mean you sold it?"

"There's… somebody in the school that will buy anything related to you for a good price. I've met with her a couple times, but she's always wrapped up in this strange black robe so I can't see her face. And she's somehow able to appear from and disappear into the shadows."

"Or she could be a teleporter," Mikoto face palms and sighs. "If she already has that picture, then there's no point in deleting the one in your phone. You can keep it, but you have to absolutely promise not to show anyone else that, understood?!"

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"Come on then, we're almost there," Mikoto heads off.

"… We're definitely NOT telling her about the video."

"Did you say something?"

"Nope! Nothing!"

"Hmm…" Mikoto was suspicious, but she lets it slide. "You didn't show anyone those pictures of my Sisters did you?"

"No," Lilian answers honestly "You can trust me on that. We didn't know what to make of it when we found out, so we kept it to ourselves. It looks like Isolde's hunch about it being something we shouldn't dig deeper into was spot on."

"You got that right," Mikoto then points to a store. "There it is!"

Lilian follows Mikoto to a store called 'Tsubomi Blossom'. The store itself had a wide variety of flowers, and the store owner was a woman that had long dark pink hair with large, wavy, low twin tails on either side of her body that reach down to her hips. Her name tag had 'Hanasaki' written on it, and she was very knowledgeable on the language of flowers.

In the end, Lilian just got a single white lily. Meaning purity in the language of flowers.

"Were you named after that?" Mikoto asks.

"Yeah," Lilian answers. "My mother was into flowers when I was born, so she wanted a flowery name."

"That's so sweet," Hanasaki joins the conversation. "My mother named me 'Tsubomi' after seeing flower buds just outside the window, 'Tsubomi' means 'flower bud'. My grandmother owned her own greenhouse and my parents eventually opened up a flower shop."

"Was this your parent's shop?" Lilian asks.

"No, no, this is my own shop. I opened up here as soon as I was able."

"That's amazing," Mikoto comments.

"I've always wanted to plant flowers around the world. Even in this city of science, people must not forget the beauty of nature."

…

"Wow…" Lilian doesn't know what to say to that. "Um… thank you for the lily, Miss Hanasaki!"

"You're welcome, have a nice day!"

Mikoto and Lilian leave the shop.

"Did you notice that one picture of Hanasaki as little girl? She looked pretty cure!"

"I did, she looked really adorable," Lilian examines the flower closely. "I'm going to need a quiet place to focus. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I know a certain park that we can get some free drinks from."

"Free drinks? How?"

"Well, how good's your kick?"

"Huh?"

XXX

* * *

"Bleack!" Lilian expresses her distaste for the drink she was given. "Oh man, how do you drink this kind of stuff?"

"Hey, don't complain," Mikoto opens her can. "They may be random, but they're free." She takes a big gulp from the can. Breathes and looks at Lilian again.

"Hmm…" Lilian looks at her can for a moment, then tries it again. "A little better, not by much though."

"You used your power to make the drink colder, didn't you?"

"Now what gave that away?" Lilian jokes as mist flows off of her hand.

"Oh look, it has that 'Mist' drink," Mikoto pointed out. "But it's just water."

"Better than… whatever the heck this is."

"Say, have you given your power a unique name?"

"No, why?"

"Technically," Mikoto starts. "I'm an electromaster, yet everyone keeps calling my power 'The Railgun'. It's even registered as such in the school's files. I like it though, it's cool and catchy. When we took a look at your profile, you were only registered as a cryokinetic. Have you thought about having a name for your power, you know, to make you stand out."

"I've never really bothered," Lilian replies solemnly. "My power is ice related, but it's actually mist. Not much you can do with that."

"I guess not."

"Isolde's giving out a lot of suggestions now. Freezing Fog, Diamond Mist, Arctic Haze, The Sexy- hell no I'm not saying that!"

"What?"

"It's just Isolde trying to get me to say something stupid."

"Hmm… I like Diamond Mist."

"It's a little hard to say. Too many syllables. Arctic Haze would've been better if real arctic haze wasn't so dirty."

"How about Arctic Mist? It gives the feeling of cold, as well has describing your primary power. Hey, were you born near the north?"

"My parents are currently in the south end of western Canada. Too far south to be in the arctic zone, but it's still more north than Japan. It can get some really stubborn winters too."

"Then it's a perfect fit!"

"If you say so."

"Oh come on, don't be like that. I even gave you some perfectly good reasons why! 'Lilian Isolde Sterling the Arctic Mist' it is!"

Lilian dispenses the can she's finished with and sat down at a table. She freezes the flower to the table and begins to copy it with her ice. Mikoto finishes her drink and joins her. The electromaster keeps quiet so that the ice girl can concentrate. The easy part of the flower, the stem, was done quickly. The actual flower part, was a different story. She's able to get a couple petals, but then the ice screws up again and a spike pokes out of the flower.

"Nngh…" Lilian snaps the ice flower off the table and tosses it aside.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just give him the flower?"

"It would, but it's not really something from me. Kind of like the difference between store bought cookies and homemade cookies. While the store bought ones are better, there's this feeling that you're giving more than just a snack when you make it yourself. M-Miss Misaka! Did something happen?!"

Mikoto was hunched over and giving off a depressing aura. Lilian's example had reminded Mikoto of a couple embarrassing incidents.

"I-it's that drink isn't it? I better call-"

"I'm fine, Lilian," Mikoto mumbles as she lifts her head. "But if you're really that determined, perhaps I can help. What kind of formulas are you using?"

"Well, I do… it's much easier to show it but we don't have any paper. … A rock? How is a rock going to help us? … Oh, I get it!" Lilian looks at the ground and finds a nice, jagged rock.

"Lilian?" Mikoto wonders what the ice girl is doing.

Lilian forms a thick ice tablet on the table. With the jagged rock she begins to scratch a formula onto the surface. Mikoto comes over to take a look at what she's writing down.

"This is what I start with…"

"… have you tried carrying the variable here? …"

"… perhaps I should divide …"

"… that's the wrong equation, it should be …"

"… what about this one? …"

"… your math is off here …"

"… I see it now! So this …"

XXX

* * *

"Phew," Mikoto slumps back down to her chair. "That took quite a bit longer than I thought." She looks at the pile of melting ice tablets and imperfect ice flowers.

"S-sorry," Lilian apologizes deeply as she holds the perfect ice flower replica.

"No, no, it was actually kind of interesting to see what goes through your head whenever you use your power."

Lilian places a hand on the table and lifts it up slowly, while mist forms another flower underneath it while it rises. A second flower replica is made.

"I can now make ice flowers whenever I want to!" Lilian rejoices. "Thank you very much Miss Misaka!" Lilian picks the flower off the table and hands it over to Mikoto. "Here, I know it'll probably feel stupid to receive a gift that you yourself helped on, but please, take it."

"Thanks," Mikoto receives the flower.

"See? Receiving a gift that was whole heartedly made by the giver feels better than getting something that was manufactured."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Mikoto takes a closer look at the flower. "But what can I do with this? It's going to melt."

"I'm just happy you accepted it," Lilian smiles. "That's all that matters to me. You can stick it in a drink to keep it cold or munch on the ice."

"Munch on the ice?" Mikoto gives Lilian strange look, then remembers her crunching some ice back when they were at the Judgment office.

"It's pure ice," Lilian gets defensive. "Nothing else, honest! It just lacks flavor."

"There's one way to fix that," Mikoto walks over to the vending machine. "HIYAH!" A hard kick to machine and out pops a drink. Mikoto opens the can and places the flower into it. "Heh, this actually looks kind of cool. A little hard to drink out of though." Mikoto takes out the flower and sips down her beverage. "Ahhh! That felt good." Mikoto puts the flower back into the drink.

"The flower?" Lilian turns back to the table full of melting tablets and flowers. The lily that she had placed there was still there. "What should I do with this?"

"Can I have it?" Mikoto asks.

"Huh?"

"It'll at least last a lot longer than this flower," Mikoto points to the flower in her can. "You don't need it anymore anyways, right?"

"You want to what?"

"I said I'll keep it."

"No, no, Isolde was talking."

"Oh."

"She wants to press it."

"That's a great idea!"

"With ice."

…

"We should get a book," Mikoto breaks the silence.

"I agree."

XXX

* * *

Mikoto and Lilian bring the flower to a nearby bookstore. Though Mikoto had to finish her drink, and her ice flower, first.

"Is there any book you like?" Mikoto asks.

"Does it matter? You're just going to use it to press the flower."

"I guess you're right, but I'd still like something nice to read afterwards."

"I… can't help you with that."

Mikoto and Lilian walk down the isles to search for any interesting books.

"Huh?" Mikoto notices something that catches her eye. "Is that…?! I can't believe it!" Mikoto suddenly rushes to a certain green book in the children's section. "This is… this is the newest Gekota elementary book. Oh I thought these weren't going to be on sale until next week!"

Lilian could do nothing but smile and laugh to herself as Mikoto rushes to the counter with the book.

"Looks like those rumors were right too. … Oh shut up. … Hey! At least they're not frogs."

"What was that?" Mikoto glares at Lilian.

"N-nothing…" Lilian backs down from Mikoto's intense eyes. "Just talking to Isolde."

The two of them leave the store and start walking down the street.

"So you don't like frogs, huh?" Mikoto interrogated.

"N-no!" Lilian jerks at the sudden hostile aura that Mikoto is giving off. "W-well… yes…"

"Then what animal do you like?"

"Rabbits," Lilian answers truthfully. "Especially snow rabbits."

"They are pretty cute aren't they?" Mikoto finds a spot to sit and opens up her newly bought book.

"Isolde prefers wolves."

"Haha, that sounds about right. Annnd there," Mikoto happily closes the book and puts it in the bag. "So what do we do next?"

"You wouldn't happen to know how we could meet up with Kamijou, do you?"

"Right, you still need to give that ice flower." Mikoto pauses to think. "I know where his school is, but there are times when he's stuck for remedial lessons. He's quite poor so looking for stores with a lot of discounts is also a good idea. If not any of those… what?" Mikoto notices Lilian eyeing her in surprise.

"You… know so much about him."

Mikoto's face reddened up, "I-it's not like I wanted to! We keep running into each other by chance. By chance!"

"Are you sure about that? Isolde says there's something going on between you two."

"Tell her to shut up!"

"Actually, come to think of it, even your Sisters seem to be attracted to him."

"W-who said I was attracted to him? What part of him is attractive? Huh? Answer me that!"

Lilian didn't say anything and just instinctively placed a hand on her head, her eyes had this faraway look to them like she was remembering something pleasant. Which irritated Mikoto, who somehow knew that Lilian's recalling a memory regarding that idiot. The way Lilian was holding her head reminds Mikoto of when Touma patted her own head, he probably smiled too when he did that to Lilian.

"Argh! Come on, we're going to his school. It should be almost done by now."

XXX

* * *

"Hey, the cold of the ice isn't bothering you?" Mikoto asks as she observes Lilian twiddling with her ice flower.

"I wouldn't be a very good cryokinetic if it did," Lilian answers. "I'm keeping it cold so that it doesn't melt before I give it to him."

"Is there a limit to your tolerance?"

"None that I've found, I'm able to walk outside without a jacket during the winters here. I can probably handle colder temperatures. Though strong winds still bother me."

"What about hot temperatures?"

"I smoke."

"You what?"

Lilian begins emitting mist from everywhere on her body. "See? It tends to annoy people though. But it's great for scaring them!"

"I bet it is," Mikoto chuckles. "Here we are, looks like we got here just in time."

The two girls arrive at a high school just as several of its students were leaving the grounds.

"I actually don't know where he'll come out, so we're going to have to look… for… him…" Mikoto turns around and finds that Lilian has gone missing. "Great."

XXX

* * *

Lilian hurries around the school grounds. She can feel stares from several of the students, most likely because she's a Tokiwadai stranger here, and that her blue hair really stands out. She didn't mind, so long as she can find him.

"Heeey!" a familiar voice calls out to her.

Lilian turns to find… not the one she's looking for. It was the boy with blue hair, and beside him was the blonde with shades.

"Hey hey hey!" Tsuchimikado reacts to Lilian's depressed look. "Why are you looking at us like that?"

"I was hoping, to find him."

"Well I'm right here!" Aogami opened up his arms and dropped to one knee. "So come to-BWACK!"

"Give it a rest will you?!" a large breasted athletic girl had whacked the blue haired boy from behind. "Good grief. You're that girl from before, right?"

Lilian nods in acknowledgement.

"Kamijou will be out soon, just wait here." Fukiyose picks up Aogami's corpse. "As for you, there's some unfinished business that you're NOT pushing onto me!"

"H-help me!" Aogami reaches for Tsuchimikado.

"Sorry," Tsuchimikado walks away. "But my sister's making me the most delicious soup. I don't want to be late."

Tsuchimikado disappears as Fukiyose carries Aogami back into the school.

Lilian waited where she was as more students passed by her. It wasn't that long until the person she was waiting for appeared.

"Ah!"

"Hmm? It's you, Sterling, right?"

"You remembered!"

"What are you doing here?"

"I-I wanted to thank you for that time…"

"You don't have to do that, I just did what I wanted."

"B-but because of me you got into a fight and-…"

"That actually happens to me a lot," Touma scratches his cheek nervously.

"Still…" Lilian holds out her flower. "Please accept this!"

"A flower?" Touma was about to reach for it when he had to block an electric attack.

"Looks like I made it just in time," Mikoto mutters out loud.

"Bug Zapper?" Touma is understandably confused and surprised. "What the hell was that for? What are you even doing here?"

"Listen, idiot. You know that Sterling's power is to create ice. That flower that she's giving you, is made of ice. Think about it."

Touma is stunned for a moment, he realized that he had almost destroyed a gift that was being offered to him.

"I'm sorry that I butted in," Mikoto apologizes to Lilian. "I didn't want this idiot accidently ruining your gift that you worked so hard to make."

"H-huh?"

"My right hand destroys all powers, it doesn't matter if they're helpful or harmful. If I had touched it then, all your hard work and effort would've shattered before your eyes. That's what she was trying to prevent."

"Just accept the flower you idiot!"

Touma then takes the ice flower with his left hand. "Thanks." He gives her a warm smile.

Lilian looked at Touma's smiling face and started to turn slightly red. Then she wobbled strangely.

"Sterling?" Touma tried to reach for her, but his hand is grabbed by the blue haired girl.

"She's fine," Lilian speaks, but her voice was a little meaner than before. "She just needs to calm down a little." Lilian releases Touma's hand and gives the boy a hostile look, while putting pressure on his chest with a single finger. "However, if you hurt her in any way, I'm going to shove my mist down your throat and freeze your insides. Got it?!"

"Y-yes?" Touma nervously responds, understandably confused.

Lilian pulls herself away from Touma and walks past Mikoto. They both leave the bewildered boy alone.

"Wow, you really are overprotective."

"He looked like the type that won't get it unless you blatantly tell him."

Mikoto sighs, "I know what you mean."

"So there is something between you two."

"What?!" Mikoto's face flushes red. "No there isn't!"

Lilian's body shrugged then turned away. "It's a one sided thing isn't? Like I said, you have to tell it to him straight."

"Argh! What about you? Will you really be okay with it if I do that? What about Lilian?"

Lilian's arms are raised and are placed behind her head, she then starts walking carefree. "Lilian will be alright, knowing her, this is probably as far as she'll go."

"Is it okay to just give up like that? What if someone else really does take him away, what will she do then?"

"It won't bother her, she'll just wish for his happiness. She might not be the most social person, but she's wishing for everyone's happiness, even if it's at the cost of her own."

"Wait," Mikoto stops, Lilian's body walks a few steps before turning around. "Did... did something happen to her?"

A small gust blows past the two of them. Mikoto had a slightly worried look in her eyes but Lilian's eyes didn't show anything at all, just confusion at the question.

(Come to think of it, dissociative identity disorder is usually linked to a major traumatic event. Then, something did happen to Lilian in the past!)

Isolde did not say a word and turned around to continue walking.

"We should get back, the school is probably looking for us."

XXX

* * *

The two girls managed to make it into the school grounds without any problems.

"There you are!" Kuroko warped in front of Misaka and Lilian. "I was so worried when I heard you disappeared!"

"Relax Kuroko," Mikoto reassured her friend. "We just wanted to spend some time together."

"Together?" Kuroko enters this knowledge into her brain. "Alone? Why didn't you call me?"

"I wanted it to be just the two of us," Mikoto answers. "And besides, you were busy with Judgment work."

"But I'd rather be with you!" Kuroko jumps Mikoto.

Mikoto readies to shock her. Kuroko's face hits a wall of ice.

"Oops, did I do that?" Lilian, still with Isolde in control, mocks.

"Y-you!" Kuroko gets up angrily. "I thought you were nicer than that! But to steal my Sissy away from me and keep her for yourself, unforgivable!"

"Lilian really is nicer than I am," Isolde responds as she readies her arms. "But if it's a fight you want..."

"You two knock it off!" Mikoto unleashes a surge of power.

Kuroko is fried but Isolde's ice armor blocked the attack. Isolde's armor cracks and shatters apart when she moves out of it.

"Isolde," Mikoto points frustratingly. "Hasn't Lilian recovered already? Why aren't you returning control to her?"

"... You sure you're okay now? ... Alright." Lilian's body closes its red eyes, and they re-open as blue.

"We should get out of here," Mikoto suggests.

"What about her?" Lilian points to the electrified Kuroko.

"She'll be fine, this happens at least once every day."

Mikoto and Lilian escape the scene and make their way closer to the school.

"I just noticed," Mikoto lightly points to Lilian's face. "Your eyes change color when you switch."

"We know about that," Lilian responds. "But even we don't know why that happens. By all accounts, it shouldn't even be scientifically plausible. A simple swapping of personalities should not alter the body in any way, and yet this happens. ... And I'm telling you it's not."

"What'd she say?"

"She says it's magic."

Mikoto didn't know how to respond to that.

"I'm sure that there's a scientific explanation that hasn't been discovered yet. I mean, having multiple personalities is rare enough as it is."

"There they are!" a familiar voice catches their ears.

Mikoto and Lilian turn to see Maaya and Kihuno.

"Awatsuki, Wannai..." Lilian softly recalled their names. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you two!" Wannai answers.

"Half the school was looking for the two of you," Maaya adds.

"Really?" Mikoto sounds surprised. "You sure you're not exaggerating? We did manage to escape pretty easily."

"Okay, 20 or so students," Maaya corrected herself. "And a bunch of teachers."

"Oh boy," Mikoto sighs. "We're going get lectured aren't we?"

"Lectured?" a shocked Lilian turns to Mikoto. "For what?"

"We did wreck the school," Mikoto answers. "Not to mention we probably caused a commotion when we disappeared."

"Oh..." Lilian sighs. "Just my luck..."

"Please don't say that," Mikoto face palms. "You sound just like him." Mikoto takes Lilian's shoulder and pulls her away. "Come on, we might as well get this over with."

"Ah, wait!" Kihuno calls out. "Sterling, tomorrow, if you don't have any plans... Would you... like to come with us?"

Mikoto smiles as she sees Lilian giving off a surprised look.

"Sure!"

**The End**

**XXX**

* * *

**Author:** And that is it, the story of how Lilian (and Isolde) met Mikoto and Touma. Since this was just meant to be an introductory story, only a couple hints were revealed about her/their history (haven't really given it much thought all throughout this, I'll make one up sometime later). While I originally wanted to use her only for that one story I mentioned at the start. I feel like making more stories that involve her. Nothing's planned yet so don't quote me on that.

Now, as for how I came up with the dual personality gimmick, most likely that was another SRW influence (Cliana Rimskaya, one girly persona, one fighter persona) and probably some Iceman from Megaman Powered Up (a soldier and a general, he's bi-polar, get it?). Likely when I was planning out the two battles, I wanted Lilian to get a 'power up out of nowhere'.

I could've easily gone with her snapping and going insane, but I wanted the power to be more controlled (this reason is also why she's mist instead of ice, to give a limitation). A 2nd persona fits what I wanted, stronger control and creativity of the established power, without it being a 'totally random power up' or going completely crazy.

As for why I had her learn about the Sisters, one of the stories that popped into my head which I can have her take part it heavily involves one of the Sisters. Don't know when/if I'll be writing that, I haven't even started on that one fic I mentioned earlier (among several others, they're fighting for priority within me XD, I hope to eventually get them all, I most likely might not though.)

Ah well, until next time! Thanks for reading!


End file.
